November 11
Light for the DaysRend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God.—Joel 2:13.
IS my heart sincerely penitent and truly humbled on account of sin? Is my sorrow less on account of the consequences to myself, than because my sins have violated God's holy law, and grieved so patient and loving and long-suffering a Saviour? Do I remember that God is not satisfied with mere words; that he requires a broken and contrite spirit—a heart-repentance, evidenced by a loving, obedient life?
How long-suffering and patient is God with sinners; how slow to punish; how unwilling to strike! If there be but a hope of recovery, how many pauses doth he make on his way to justice?—SPENCER.
Sorrow for sin only because it exposes to punishment, is not true repentance. He that sorrows after a godly sort, would not sin, though escape from consequences were possible: for his heart is changed; he is renewed in the spirit of his mind; he loves God and his service, and has lost his relish for the pleasures of sin.—WALKER.
Oh, for a heart to praise my God!
A heart from sin set free;
A heart that always feels thy blood, So freely shed for me;
A heart in every thought renewed, And filled with love divine;
Perfect, and right, and pure, and good, A copy, Lord, of thine!—C. WESLEY.