May 3, 2026 – Serve
One of the mugs I’ve been using for my morning coffee during my visit in Vicenza, Italy with my stepson’s wife and two young sons while he is on assignment.
Utmost – Ephesians 6:18 – “Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit.” Chambers offers this interesting heads up, “As we go on in intercession we may find that our obedience to God is going to cost other people more than we thought. The danger then is to begin to intercede in sympathy with those whom God was gradually lifting to a totally different sphere in answer to our prayers. Whenever we step back from identification with God’s interest in others into sympathy with them, the vital connection with God has gone; we have put our sympathy, our consideration for them, in the way, and this is a deliberate rebuke to God…. Intercession leaves you neither time nor inclination to pray for your own ‘sad sweet self.’ The thought of yourself is not kept out, because it is not there to keep out; you are completely and entirely identified with God’s interests in other lives.” When we talk with God about issues that are important to other people, we take the focus off ourselves and give room to God to work things out for us and for them.
Simpson – “My peace I give unto you” (John xiv. 27). When we trust God with our problems, we can find peace. Chambers writes, “Here lies the secret of abiding peace – God’s peace. We give ourselves to God and the Holy Spirit takes possession of our breast. It is indeed ‘Peace, Peace.’ But it is just then that the devil begins to turn us away, and he does it through our thoughts, diverting or distracting them as occasion requires…. If we truly desire His Presence more than all else, we will turn away from every conflicting thought and look steadily up to Jesus…. The real secret of perfect rest is to be jealously, habitually occupied with Jesus.”
Power – Matthew 12:36 – “But I tell you, on the day of judgment men will have to give account for every idle (inoperative, nonworking) word they speak.” This is sobering. Joyce suggests, “If you realize you’re thinking about something that is not fruitful, the best way to interrupt a thought pattern is to speak what you want to think about.” Another suggestion to distract unproductive thinking is to pray for other people and the needs and concerns they’ve shared with you. “Choose wise thoughts and words.”
Streams – Joel 2:32 – “And it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered.” What a very meaningful devotion that Cowman shares from C. H. Spurgeon:
“Why do not I call on His name: Why do I run to this neighbor and that when God is so near and will hear my faintest call? Why do I sit down and devise schemes and invent plans? Why not at once roll myself and my burden upon the Lord?
Straightforward is the best runner–why do not I run at once to the living God? In vain shall I look for ‘deliverance anywhere else; but with God I shall find it; for here I have His royal shall to make it sure. I need not ask whether I may call on Him or not, for that word ‘Whosoever’ is a very wide and comprehensive one. Whosoever means me, for it means anybody and everybody who calls upon God. I will therefor follow the leading of the text, and at once call upon the glorious Lord who has made so large a promise.
My case is urgent, and I do not see how I am to be delivered; but this is no business of mine. He who makes the promise will find ways and means of keeping it. It is mine to obey His commands; it is not mine to direct His counsels. I am His servant, not His solicitor. I call upon Him, and He will deliver.”
