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Daily devotional

October 12 - Effective prayer

“...I, Daniel, perceived in the books the number of years that, according to the word of the Lord to Jeremiah the prophet, must pass before the end ...

Daily devotional

October 11 - Showers of blessing

“The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might ...

Daily devotional

October 10 - The contest

“I am the Lord; that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols.” - Isaiah 42:8 Scripture reading: 1 Kings 18:19-40...

Daily devotional

October 9 - Divided hearts

“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You canno...

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Daily devotional

October 8 - The king and his servants

“But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.” - Mark 10:43-45 Scripture reading: 1 Kings 18:1-18 Ahab and Jezebel are opposed to God and His Church. Jezebel, aggressively so. That wicked woman cuts off the prophets of the Lord as she seeks to eradicate God’s worship. We wouldn’t do that, of course, but we need to guard against a more sophisticated way of killing the Lord’s prophets, like listening to preaching without submitting to it. Then there is King Ahab. He ignores the plight of his people, but cares for his animals of war, trusting in them for victory rather than in the Lord. He also ignores his soul. He pursues grass and not the grace that would remove God’s wrath and bring blessing to his parched soul and realm. Too many within the church imitate him, giving their best energy to pursue what will wither rather than God’s enduring blessings. They care more about grass than grace. And how stubborn Ahab is! Repentance would bring blessing to him, his people, and his animals. But how the human heart resists repentance. God has His own amidst the apostasy of His Church. There is Elijah and at least 100 other prophets hidden by God’s faithful servant Obadiah. Rather than suggesting that Obadiah compromised to be employed by an enemy of the Church, the passage highlights his devotion to the Lord. Admittedly, Obadiah does hesitate to go public with his devotion but finally agrees when Elijah reminds him of the big God they serve, the Lord of hosts. Aren’t you grateful that Christ cares more for His subjects than Ahab did and is willing to bear God’s wrath for their blessing? And doesn’t this spur you on to serve Him faithfully, whatever the cost? Suggestions for prayer Give thanks for our servant King, the Lord Jesus and ask God that by His Spirit we would be faithful servants of Christ and not exhibit the characteristics of the enemies of the gospel. Reverend John van Eyk began his ministry in Cambridge, Ontario as Church Planter and Minister of the Riverside Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church. After 13 years there he served almost 10 years in the Tain/Fearn congregation of the Associated Presbyterian Churches in the Scottish Highlands. John currently serves as Senior Pastor of Trinity Reformed Church (United Reformed) in Lethbridge, Alberta. Get this devotional delivered directly to your phone each day via our RP App. This devotional is made available by the Nearer To God Devotional team, who also make available in print, for purchase, at NTGDevotional.com....

Daily devotional

October 7 - Resurrection life

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead…” - 1 Peter 1:3 Scripture reading: Luke 7:11-17 When hundreds of years after Elijah you read of a prophet raising a dead son to life and giving him back to his mother, who is a widow, you are encouraged to link Elijah’s miracle with that story. Though written by many writers, the Bible has one divine Author and through the similarities between the stories, the Holy Spirit is alerting us that 1 Kings isn’t just about Elijah but about a greater than Elijah, the great Prophet Who has arisen among us, God, Who has visited His people. That is, the Old Testament is about Jesus Christ. So, in reading about Elijah, we should learn about Jesus. In this New Testament counterpart to yesterday’s reading, we learn of Jesus’ compassion for the needy. He is willing to enter enemy territory. By touching the bier, Jesus demonstrates that He shares our uncleanness. He bears our sins and enters our death by experiencing God’s curse on the cross. He engages in conflict with the devil and triumphs. The risen Christ is the victor over sin, death, hell, and Satan. His resurrection life revives our spiritually dead souls and He takes us and presents us to the Father, saying, ‘See, Your son/daughter lives.’ If they glorified God in Nain because they saw the Lord Jesus’ miracle as an evidence of God’s visitation, how much more ought we to glorify God for the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Himself and His resurrection power that raises the spiritually dead. Surely, God has visited us. Suggestions for prayer Pray that God would visit us and bring to life the spiritually dead in our church and nation and praise Him that He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Reverend John van Eyk began his ministry in Cambridge, Ontario as Church Planter and Minister of the Riverside Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church. After 13 years there he served almost 10 years in the Tain/Fearn congregation of the Associated Presbyterian Churches in the Scottish Highlands. John currently serves as Senior Pastor of Trinity Reformed Church (United Reformed) in Lethbridge, Alberta. Get this devotional delivered directly to your phone each day via our RP App. This devotional is made available by the Nearer To God Devotional team, who also make available in print, for purchase, at NTGDevotional.com....

Daily devotional

October 6 - Revive us again

“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” - Romans 8:1 Scripture reading: 1 Kings 17:17-24 How painful! It isn’t just that her son died. That is hard enough. Some of you know this firsthand. He was taken after such a miraculous intervention that spared his life. That makes it particularly poignant. What kind of God had this widow just been introduced to? Does he sustain life just to snatch it? Even Elijah appears flummoxed by this providence (v. 20). In her confusion, she accuses God of being against her and treats this providence as punishment for her sin (v. 18). This is worth probing. Sometimes we feel this way in hard times because there actually is unconfessed sin in our life and the Holy Spirit is convicting us to repent. But at other times we feel this way because, prodded by the devil, we entertain harsh thoughts of God. More than a few Christians are always waiting for something bad to happen in their lives. They haven’t grasped sufficiently the sheer grandeur of grace. Tragedy isn’t God’s punishment for His dear children. We need to say to this woman (and each other), “Your son doesn’t die for your sin. God’s Son dies for your sin!” This is the blessing of the Lord’s Day as we are reminded again of God’s astonishing grace. God does graciously correct her misapprehension. Elijah takes the child and God’s resurrecting power revives him. Through that kindness her spiritual life revives too, and she boldly confesses the truth spoken by the man of God. This trial, like all trials sent by a gracious Father, is for the strengthening of faith. Behold the grace and wisdom of our God. Suggestions for prayer Pray that God would protect us from improper thoughts concerning Himself so that we would neither think Him too soft (that we continue in sin) or too hard (that we despair of forgiveness). Pray that He would keep the cross of our Lord Jesus fixed in our hearts and minds. Reverend John van Eyk began his ministry in Cambridge, Ontario as Church Planter and Minister of the Riverside Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church. After 13 years there he served almost 10 years in the Tain/Fearn congregation of the Associated Presbyterian Churches in the Scottish Highlands. John currently serves as Senior Pastor of Trinity Reformed Church (United Reformed) in Lethbridge, Alberta. Get this devotional delivered directly to your phone each day via our RP App. This devotional is made available by the Nearer To God Devotional team, who also make available in print, for purchase, at NTGDevotional.com....

Daily devotional

October 5 - Marveling at his grace

“Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off.” - Romans 11:22 Scripture reading: Luke 4:16-30 As Jesus said, God could have sent Elijah to many widows in Israel. So why to a foreigner? Our multi-tasking God did this for at least two reasons. First, as a judgement on His own people. God’s prophet was unacceptable in his ‘hometown’ and so he was sent to shower grace to a foreigner. He came to his own but his own did not receive him. Second, to showcase His grace. Grace comes to those who don’t seek it. Clearly, the widow wasn’t a believer. She speaks about the Lord, Elisha’s God (1 Kings 17:12). But the Lord sought her. Grace comes to enemies. Zarephath is of Sidon. Wicked Jezebel introduced the worship of the Sidonian god, Baal, in Israel and to that place and those people the Lord sends His servant and His grace. As seen in the incarnation of the Lord Jesus and the Great Commission, God directs His grace to enemy-occupied territory. Grace stops at nothing to save the elect. God used the disobedience of the chosen nation to send His prophet to save this chosen foreigner. The Jews’ rejection means salvation for the Gentiles (Romans 11:11) and the death of His Son is a price God is willing to pay to save His own. Grace comes to those who believe. The widow’s faith is evidenced by her works. She trusted the word of the prophet and ‘did as Elijah said.’ Christ, the final Prophet, invites us to come to Him and faith does precisely that, repenting and receiving the offer of salvation. Suggestions for prayer Pray for the Holy Spirit to open the eyes of your hearts that you may marvel at the glory of His grace and mercy. Pray that your minister may faithfully proclaim God’s Word, reproving, rebuking, and exhorting, with complete patience and teaching and that you would receive Christ as He is offered to you. Reverend John van Eyk began his ministry in Cambridge, Ontario as Church Planter and Minister of the Riverside Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church. After 13 years there he served almost 10 years in the Tain/Fearn congregation of the Associated Presbyterian Churches in the Scottish Highlands. John currently serves as Senior Pastor of Trinity Reformed Church (United Reformed) in Lethbridge, Alberta. Get this devotional delivered directly to your phone each day via our RP App. This devotional is made available by the Nearer To God Devotional team, who also make available in print, for purchase, at NTGDevotional.com....

Daily devotional

October 4 - Not by bread alone

“And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone.” - Deuteronomy 8:3 Scripture reading: 1 Kings 17:7-16 What an encouragement the dried-up brook must have been to Elijah. God was fulfilling His promise of withholding dew and rain! It also meant that God was going to provide for Elijah some other way. He reaches Zarephath and, encountering the widow, he instructs her to bring him some water. As she leaves to comply he asks for a morsel of bread too. This unleashes an outpouring of her pitiable story. She has nothing baked, little flour, little oil, few sticks, and little time left to live. You might think that Elijah might respond with something like, “I’m sorry. Yes, I understand. I’ll ask someone else. Just the water will be fine.” You might even think that would be the kind and sensitive thing to do. But he doesn’t. He intensifies the request. Do what you are going to do “but first make a little cake of it and bring it to me.” Does it need to be said that God’s request should have given her no hesitation? If obedience meant that yesterday’s supper was her last meal she should have given a morsel of bread to the man of God. God doesn’t ask for our leftovers or what we can conveniently part with. He demands our all to be given without hesitation. But notice the Lord’s gentleness. He wins her obedience with a sandwich of assurance. Top slice: ‘Do not fear.’ Bottom slice: ‘The jar of flour shall not be spent, and the jug of oil shall not empty . . .’ And every day thereafter was a reminder of the faithfulness of the Lord and His Word. Suggestions for prayer Ask God to teach us how generous and gracious He is, even in His demands, so that we might trust Him for His daily provision of grace and cheerfully give Him whatever He asks of us. Reverend John van Eyk began his ministry in Cambridge, Ontario as Church Planter and Minister of the Riverside Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church. After 13 years there he served almost 10 years in the Tain/Fearn congregation of the Associated Presbyterian Churches in the Scottish Highlands. John currently serves as Senior Pastor of Trinity Reformed Church (United Reformed) in Lethbridge, Alberta. Get this devotional delivered directly to your phone each day via our RP App. This devotional is made available by the Nearer To God Devotional team, who also make available in print, for purchase, at NTGDevotional.com....

Daily devotional

October 3 - God’s gracious judgement

“Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?” - Romans 2:4 Scripture reading: Matthew 3:1-12; 1 Kings 17:1-7 Talk about a short-term ministry! No sooner does Elijah begin than he is sent away. What is God doing? He’s judging his people. They refused to listen to His Word. Now He refuses to speak it. He’s sending a famine, not only of food, but of the hearing of the Words of the Lord (Amos 8:11). Sobering, isn’t it? But in God’s judgement, we see grace. In the midst of the famine, He preserves Elijah by feeding him with ravens because God has a plan to send him back. He has not completely deserted His people. Prophets communicated God’s message both by their lives and their mouths. We hear God’s judgement in “Neither dew nor rain these years.” That’s God’s response to incessant rebellion. But even this announcement is gracious. First, God is going to showcase the incompetence of the storm god, Baal, so that Israel would abandon him and return to the Lord. Second, threatened judgement is always a call to repentance so that we might experience God’s forgiving grace. Notice how John the Baptizer warns in preparation for the coming of grace in Christ. What a mercy when your engine temperature warning light brightens your dashboard! Imagine if God had abandoned them to their sin like He had the other nations. Jesus, the greater Prophet has come. We have heard the warnings from His mouth and have seen the seriousness of God’s wrath in His death. What have we learned? Though not soft on sin, our God is gracious in His judgements. How much more gracious is He in His grace! Suggestions for prayer Pray for His Spirit so that we would cherish the Word of God we have, both as we read it and hear it preached. Praise the Holy God that He is gracious and forgiving. Reverend John van Eyk began his ministry in Cambridge, Ontario as Church Planter and Minister of the Riverside Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church. After 13 years there he served almost 10 years in the Tain/Fearn congregation of the Associated Presbyterian Churches in the Scottish Highlands. John currently serves as Senior Pastor of Trinity Reformed Church (United Reformed) in Lethbridge, Alberta. Get this devotional delivered directly to your phone each day via our RP App. This devotional is made available by the Nearer To God Devotional team, who also make available in print, for purchase, at NTGDevotional.com....

Daily devotional

October 2 - God’s man

“Now Elijah the Tishbite, of Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, before whom I stand, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word.”” - 1 Kings 17:1 Scripture reading: 1 Corinthians 1:18-31; 1 Kings 17:1-5 No scholar seems able to tell us about Tishbe. Neither do we know much about Elijah’s parents except what is most important: in a day of rampant unbelief they confess their faith in the covenant Lord by naming their son Elijah, meaning, My God is the Lord. God’s chosen servant’s beginnings are clouded in obscurity yet Elijah’s character explodes in this introduction. Elijah is a man of courage, addressing the king of Israel, one who is no friend of God’s prophets. What emboldened him? First, conviction that God lives, in contrast to Baal, who according to pagan mythology, annually died. Second, consciousness of God. God was not simply one before Whom he stood but before Whom he stands. To Elijah, the colossal figure of the King towers above the king. Third, confidence in God’s promise to punish idolatrous people (Deuteronomy 28:15, 23-24). Elijah is also a committed man. He is told to go and he goes (vv. 2, 5). It doesn’t seem that significant except that people like that were scarce in his day and also in ours. But it should be common among Christians. Whatever God calls me to do, I will do. Whatever He forbids, I will forgo. This is the man Elijah. He was like Christ, the greater Prophet, who was chosen from obscurity, courageous before men, and committed to serving His God unstintingly. The Spirit upon Christ is the Spirit upon Elijah and is the Spirit upon us to shape us to be that kind of Christian. Suggestions for prayer Ask that God would pour out His Holy Spirit upon us to conform us to the image of Christ so that we might fearlessly serve Him in his Church and our nation. Pray that God would make your Minister a man of courage and commitment. Reverend John van Eyk began his ministry in Cambridge, Ontario as Church Planter and Minister of the Riverside Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church. After 13 years there he served almost 10 years in the Tain/Fearn congregation of the Associated Presbyterian Churches in the Scottish Highlands. John currently serves as Senior Pastor of Trinity Reformed Church (United Reformed) in Lethbridge, Alberta. Get this devotional delivered directly to your phone each day via our RP App. This devotional is made available by the Nearer To God Devotional team, who also make available in print, for purchase, at NTGDevotional.com....

Daily devotional

October 1 - Introduction to the word of God

The word of God is living and active. It is not only something we study, it studies us. As the Bible reveals truths about itself, it also, simultaneously, reveals truths about us. That's what you will discover as we work our way through the sacred account of the greatest of the Old Testament prophets, Elijah. From his sudden appearance before Ahab to his surprising disappearance before Elisha, his successor, these studies will highlight the astonishing grace of God to his people in his Son, Jesus Christ, the greatest of all prophets and the final Word of God. In the lead up to Reformation Day, and in light of the Synod of Dort, we will end the month looking at the five main points of doctrine in dispute in the Netherlands in the early 1600s, not so much for disputation, as for celebration. Hope in dark days “. . .according to the word of the Lord” - 1 Kings 16:34 Scripture Reading: 1 Kings 16:29-34 There were dark days in Israel when Ahab came to the throne and they only became darker. It was bad enough that Ahab sanctioned the breaking of the second commandment by worshipping God through the golden calves. He also promoted the worship of Baal, the nature god of the Canaanites. Ahab bears responsibility for this because, contrary to God’s gracious command, he married the pagan Jezebel who had an evangelistic zeal to supplant the Lord‘s worship with Baal’s. Ahab further demonstrated his contempt for God’s Word by rebuilding Jericho, the ruins of which were a monument to God’s grace and judgement. Ahab wants to worship God and Baal. Would to God that this sin of syncretism, attempting to serve two masters, were only a past malady in Christ’s Church. Alas, we see those same Ahabian tendencies when we limit the Lordship of Christ to specific areas of our lives. Christ is Lord, we confess, but I will marry whom I will. I will not let that confession interfere in maximizing profits in my business or His Lordship dictate what will entertain me. He is as Lord as I make Him Lord. Syncretism. But if the sons of Hiel die according to the Word of the Lord (Joshua 6:26) doesn’t that encourage us to believe that other promises of God will be fulfilled too, including the promises to destroy the serpent, to forgive syncretistic sinners, and to sanctify His people? Indeed it does! Suggestions for prayer Ask that God would unite your heart to fear His name (Psalm 68:11) and praise Him that none of His promises fail, neither His promises of judgement nor of blessing. Reverend John van Eyk began his ministry in Cambridge, Ontario as Church Planter and Minister of the Riverside Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church. After 13 years there he served almost 10 years in the Tain/Fearn congregation of the Associated Presbyterian Churches in the Scottish Highlands. John currently serves as Senior Pastor of Trinity Reformed Church (United Reformed) in Lethbridge, Alberta. Get this devotional delivered directly to your phone each day via our RP App. This devotional is made available by the Nearer To God Devotional team, who also make available in print, for purchase, at NTGDevotional.com....

Daily devotional

September 30 - We shall be like him

“Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.” - 1 John 3:2 Scripture reading: 1 John 3:1-3, 16-18; 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 We can replace the word love with the name of Christ in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8: “ is patient and kind; does not envy or boast; is not arrogant or rude. does not insist on own way; is not irritable or resentful; does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. love never ends.” And we all say, “Amen!” Do that with your name or anyone else’s name and no one says, “Amen!” If we are honest, we all fall far short of this portrait of love. But thanks be to God that we see Christ, our Saviour, in this portrait! And we can say, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). Here is an amazing truth: One day, in the new creation, we will be able to put our names in vv. 4-8, because one day we will be perfectly like Christ (1 John 3:2). We will love God and each other perfectly. Isn’t that amazing?! What a day that will be! If you long for that day, then strive to walk in love more and more by God’s Spirit, as you behold the glorious love of Christ in the Gospel (2 Corinthians 3:18). Suggestions for prayer Thank God that He, “shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). Thank God that Christ loved you to the end (John 13:1). Pray that the Spirit would produce Christ-like love in your life this day and thank God that one day you will be perfectly like Christ. Rev. Brian Cochran is ordained in the United Reformed Churches in North America and has served as the pastor of Redeemer Reformation Church in Regina, SK, for 14 years. This month he starts a new call to Grace URC in Torrance, CA. Get this devotional delivered directly to your phone each day via our RP App. This devotional is made available by the Nearer To God Devotional team, who also make available in print, for purchase, at NTGDevotional.com....

Daily devotional

September 29 - The character of the God we worship

“For the LORD is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.” - Psalm 100:5 Scripture reading: Psalm 100:1-5 Who is the LORD that we worship? “The LORD is good” (v. 5). “The LORD is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made” (Psalm 145:9). But above all we see His goodness in our redemption. “The goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared…He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy.” And because of Christ, our Savior, we are “justified by grace” and “heirs according to the hope of eternal life” (Titus 3:4-7). Truly the Lord is good! Even more, “His steadfast love endures forever “(v. 5). God is love. And His covenant love for His people endures forever. It’s permanent. It doesn’t fluctuate, like our love so often does. It’s a loyal, eternal love. And it’s supremely demonstrated in the cross of Christ. “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). Amazing love! Even more, “His faithfulness to all generations” (v. 5). Our God is a promise-keeping God. He always follows through on His Word. We can bank on His promises. If God said He’s going to do it He WILL do it. As Charles Spurgeon put it, “As our fathers found Him faithful, so will our sons, and their seed forever…Our heart leaps for joy as we bow before One who has never broken His word or changed His purpose.” Suggestions for prayer Pray that God would impress His goodness, love, and faithfulness upon your heart and the hearts of those who gather with you for worship today. Pray that you all would worship God with wholehearted thanksgiving today. Rev. Brian Cochran is ordained in the United Reformed Churches in North America and has served as the pastor of Redeemer Reformation Church in Regina, SK, for 14 years. This month he starts a new call to Grace URC in Torrance, CA. Get this devotional delivered directly to your phone each day via our RP App. This devotional is made available by the Nearer To God Devotional team, who also make available in print, for purchase, at NTGDevotional.com....

Daily devotional

September 28 - Faith, hope, love: The greatest is love

“So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” - 1 Corinthians 13:13 Scripture reading: Romans 8:18-24; 1 Corinthians 13:8-13 Faith, hope and love are marks of all true believers. But why is love the greatest? Because now we walk by faith, but at Christ’s return we will walk by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7). If faith continues in eternity in some form, we certainly won’t have faith in the same way that we have faith now. Now our faith is dependent on hearing God’s Word. But in heaven we will see the Word of God in the flesh when we see Christ face to face. Similarly, hope vanishes when what we hope for comes firmly into view (Romans 8:24). Our blessed hope is the appearing of Christ (Titus 2:13). When Christ appears, hope will either fade away or be experienced differently in heaven. But we will continue to love in the same way for all of eternity. Love will continue to be patterned after the self-giving love of Christ in the Gospel. In glory, we will love our Triune God and each other perfectly, without any taint of sin. What a glorious thought! Furthermore, faith and hope do not make us like God, but love does. God does not possess faith or hope. But God loves, for He is love (1 John 4:8). And “God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit” (Romans 5:5). Let us then “be imitators of God, as beloved children and walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us” (Ephesians 5:1-2). Suggestions for prayer Pray that God would help you to know in greater measure His love for you in Christ. Pray that, as a beloved child of God, you would imitate your Heavenly Father today by walking in Christ-like, self-giving love. Give thanks that one day you will love perfectly! Rev. Brian Cochran is ordained in the United Reformed Churches in North America and has served as the pastor of Redeemer Reformation Church in Regina, SK, for 14 years. This month he starts a new call to Grace URC in Torrance, CA. Get this devotional delivered directly to your phone each day via our RP App. This devotional is made available by the Nearer To God Devotional team, who also make available in print, for purchase, at NTGDevotional.com....

Daily devotional

September 27 - Then I shall know fully

“Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.” - 1 Corinthians 13:12 Scripture reading: Romans 8:28-39; 1 Corinthians 13:12 Peter was confused when Jesus washed the disciples’ feet. But Jesus said, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand” (John 13:7). This could’ve been said to any of the saints in the Old Testament. We have the privilege of seeing the big picture in light of the whole of Scripture. We see how God used Joseph’s sufferings not only to save many from a famine but also to preserve the line of the promised offspring so that the Saviour of the world could come. The Old Testament saints only knew in part what would be more fully revealed at Christ’s first coming. Thankfully, we have the privilege of a fuller revelation! But like Peter’s confusion when Jesus washed the disciples’ feet, there are still things that we don’t understand. We don’t fully understand the Bible perfectly. We don’t fully know Christ face to face. We don’t fully understand why God allows certain trials to come into our lives. But we can be sure that we will know fully when Christ returns, and we see Him face to face. And we will see that God had a good purpose behind all that we went through in this age (Romans 8:28). We can trust His goodness now because He knows us fully (v. 12) and yet still loves us, and gave His only begotten Son for us on the cross (Romans 8:32). If God so loved us, let us love one another. Suggestions for Prayer Pray that God would help you to walk by faith and patiently trust His sovereign and good plan for your life. Pray that the Spirit would produce the fruit of Christ-like love in your life, even when you are confused and don’t fully understand what God is doing. Rev. Brian Cochran is ordained in the United Reformed Churches in North America and has served as the pastor of Redeemer Reformation Church in Regina, SK, for 14 years. This month he starts a new call to Grace URC in Torrance, CA. Get this devotional delivered directly to your phone each day via our RP App. This devotional is made available by the Nearer To God Devotional team, who also make available in print, for purchase, at NTGDevotional.com....

Daily devotional

September 26 - Seeing a mirror dimly vs. face to face

“For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.” - 1 Corinthians 13:12 Scripture reading: 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 Again, Paul is contrasting this age with the age to come. In this age we only see as one looking in a dim mirror. It’s like looking at a photograph. It’s not direct. It’s indirect. It’s not face to face. But at Christ’s return, then we shall see Him face to face. And it will be far more glorious than our knowledge of Christ in this age. Even the best theologians in this age only have a partial knowledge of God. But in the age to come our theology of God will be perfected. Now it’s a theology of pilgrims on the way. Then it will be a theology of the blessed who see Christ face to face. Paul is putting spiritual gifts in their proper place in the present age. He’s correcting the Corinthians for exalting the gifts so highly, especially the gifts of prophecy, tongues and knowledge. They thought those gifts were a mark to be proud of, as if one had arrived spiritually. But Paul is teaching them to view them in light of the age to come, namely that they will one day cease. Whereas love will endure forever. Love is the more excellent way. All our gifts are nothing without love. The one who is spiritually mature is the one who looks to Christ in the Gospel, rests by faith alone in His completed work of salvation, and then in gratitude loves as Christ first loved us. May this be true of us today! Suggestions for prayer Pray that God would help you, by His Spirit, to walk in humility and love today. Pray that you would use your gifts to serve others in Christ-like love. Rev. Brian Cochran is ordained in the United Reformed Churches in North America and has served as the pastor of Redeemer Reformation Church in Regina, SK, for 14 years. This month he starts a new call to Grace URC in Torrance, CA. Get this devotional delivered directly to your phone each day via our RP App. This devotional is made available by the Nearer To God Devotional team, who also make available in print, for purchase, at NTGDevotional.com....

Daily devotional

September 25 - The age of childhood vs. the age of adulthood

“When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.” - 1 Corinthians 13:11 Scripture reading: 1 Corinthians 13:1-11 The contrast between this age and the age to come, is like the contrast between childhood and adulthood. Children behave in a way that is appropriate to their age. When they are toddlers they speak with a limited vocabulary. They lack the wisdom and discernment to recognize dangerous situations. They also are very cute in the things they say and do. But if an adult acts like a toddler, we think there is something wrong with them. Adults should know not to touch a hot stove. It’s funny when a toddler rams cake into their mouth with their bare hands and gets frosting all over their face. But it’s odd for an adult to eat cake in such a manner. What Paul is saying here is that this age is the age of childhood, where we do things appropriate to childhood. The age to come is the age of adulthood, to be consummated at Christ’s return. This relativizes the gifts that the Corinthians were boasting in. Just as children eventually grow up and make a definitive break with childish ways, so too, they will one day leave these gifts behind. But love abides forever. And whatever gifts God gives us now are not to demonstrate how “spiritual” we are. Rather, they are to be used in love for the building up of the body of Christ. Let us then grow in Christ, and use our gifts in loving service of others, especially our brothers and sisters in Christ. Suggestions for prayer Pray that the Spirit would mature us in the image of Christ so that we use our gifts, not for childish/selfish reasons, but in loving service of others, just as Christ first loved us. Rev. Brian Cochran is ordained in the United Reformed Churches in North America and has served as the pastor of Redeemer Reformation Church in Regina, SK, for 14 years. This month he starts a new call to Grace URC in Torrance, CA. Get this devotional delivered directly to your phone each day via our RP App. This devotional is made available by the Nearer To God Devotional team, who also make available in print, for purchase, at NTGDevotional.com....

Daily devotional

September 24 - We know in part

“For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.” - 1 Corinthians 13:9-10 Scripture reading: Philippians 2:1-11; 1 Corinthians 13:8-10 The problem in the Corinthian church was not a lack of knowledge and prophecy. The problem was a lack of humility and love, in how they used that knowledge (cf. 1 Corinthians 8:1). Thus, Paul impresses upon them, “we know in part and prophesy in part.” This ought to instill humility in us. While we may know the Bible and systematic theology better than any seminary professor, we need to be humble because it’s still a partial knowledge. We still have so much to learn. The revelation that we have of Christ now, while it’s far greater than what they had in the Old Testament, is still a partial revelation compared to the full revelation of Christ’s glory at His second coming. It’s a sufficient revelation for this age (2 Timothy 3:16-17), but we look forward to “the perfect” (i.e. the full revelation of Christ at His return). Then the partial will pass away and we will have a theology of glorified saints. Additionally, we do theology now as those who are tainted by sin. But in glory we will be entirely free from sin forever. Older Reformed theologians called their theological summaries and systems “our humble theology” and “a theology for pilgrims on the way.” Good theology ought to humble us, and be used in love and humility to build up the body of Christ. Let us walk in love and humility looking to the love and humility of Christ in our salvation (Philippians 2:1-11). Suggestions for prayer Confess to God the times that you have been proud and unloving in how you’ve used your knowledge of the Bible and theology. Rest in God’s love and forgiveness in Christ, and pray that the Spirit would enable you to walk in humility and love. Rev. Brian Cochran is ordained in the United Reformed Churches in North America and has served as the pastor of Redeemer Reformation Church in Regina, SK, for 14 years. This month he starts a new call to Grace URC in Torrance, CA. Get this devotional delivered directly to your phone each day via our RP App. This devotional is made available by the Nearer To God Devotional team, who also make available in print, for purchase, at NTGDevotional.com....

Daily devotional

September 23 - Love never ends

“Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.” - 1 Corinthians 13:8 Scripture reading: Romans 5:1-8; 1 Corinthians 13:1-8 Paul says climactically, “love never ends.” More literally, love never falls down or falls apart. It doesn’t fall to pieces in hardship. It has no expiration date. Remember, Paul is in the midst of a discussion on spiritual gifts. The Corinthians were enamoured with the gifts of prophecy, tongues, and knowledge. But as Sinclair Ferguson puts it, “Gifts are secondary; love is primary. Gifts are tools. What matters is how a person employs them.” And Paul says that these gifts will pass away. Anthony Thiselton writes, “how can preachers and prophets have anything to say when the last judgment not only reveals, but evaluates and pronounces judgment upon, everything. The sermons of prophets and the ‘knowledge’ of theologians are rendered redundant, while the character and fruit of love does not fall apart. To prophecy would be like switching on a in the full light of the noonday sun.” When Christ returns and ushers in the glories of the age to come, these gifts will no longer be needed. Some were even part of the foundation laying era of the apostles and prophets (Ephesians 2:20). But love never ends. Indeed, Christ’s love for us never fell apart in hardship. Christ loved us all the way to the cross and will love us for all of eternity. And His “love has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (Romans 5:5). Therefore, let us walk by the Spirit in Christ-like, never-ending love! Suggestions for prayer Give thanks to God for the never-ending, never-failing, love of Christ. Pray for the Holy Spirit to fill you with a Christ-like love that never ends. Rev. Brian Cochran is ordained in the United Reformed Churches in North America and has served as the pastor of Redeemer Reformation Church in Regina, SK, for 14 years. This month he starts a new call to Grace URC in Torrance, CA. Get this devotional delivered directly to your phone each day via our RP App. This devotional is made available by the Nearer To God Devotional team, who also make available in print, for purchase, at NTGDevotional.com....

Daily devotional

September 22 - Enter his gates with thanksgiving

“Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name!” - Psalm 100:4 Scripture reading: Psalm 100:1-5 We are called to worship God with thanksgiving. Why? Because “He made us, and we are His” (v. 3). God is our Creator and Redeemer. We owe Him thanksgiving for creating and sustaining us, and for the manifold gifts that He gives us in creation. Has not God given you good gifts like food, clothing, shelter, transportation, music, art, technology, movies, books, board games, family, friendships and more? Enter His gates with thanksgiving! Even more, God has ransomed us, not with silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ (1 Peter 1:18-19). Christ is the Good Shepherd who laid down His life for us and gives us eternal life (John 10:11, 28). “Christ…suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18). It is by grace alone, through faith alone, because of Christ alone that we can say, “we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture” (v. 3). And because of the blood of Christ we not only enter God’s courts with praise, we also “have confidence to enter the holy places” (Hebrews 10:19). In the Old Covenant only the High Priest could enter the holy of holies, and only once a year on the Day of Atonement. But now in Christ, we can confidently enter the holy of holies and draw near to the throne of grace (Hebrews 4:16). How can we not enter God’s presence with thanksgiving today and every Lord’s Day? Suggestions for prayer Confess your ingratitude for the many blessings of creation and redemption and rest in God’s promise of forgiveness in Christ (1 John 1:9). Pray that God would grant you and the other worshippers grateful hearts as you enter His presence with singing and His courts with praise. Rev. Brian Cochran is ordained in the United Reformed Churches in North America and has served as the pastor of Redeemer Reformation Church in Regina, SK, for 14 years. This month he starts a new call to Grace URC in Torrance, CA. Get this devotional delivered directly to your phone each day via our RP App. This devotional is made available by the Nearer To God Devotional team, who also make available in print, for purchase, at NTGDevotional.com....

Daily devotional

September 21 - Love endures all things

“Love…endures all things.” - 1 Corinthians 13:7 Scripture reading: Hebrews 12:1-2; 1 Corinthians 13:7 Love endures through the good times and the bad times. Love doesn’t forsake people when life is hard and one’s energy is zapped. Love never tires of supporting the other person for their good. Love perseveres through hardship, pain, suffering and misfortune. Love doesn’t love only when it’s convenient. Love is inconvenienced for others. Love bears and endures all things. How can we love like this? Well, again, with us it’s impossible. We cannot muster it up from within. We must look to Christ and pray that the Spirit would fill us with Christ-like enduring love. Jesus is the one who came to save us from all our sins. Jesus is the one who “bears all things…endures all things” in our salvation. He loved us to the very end and gave Himself for us on the cross (John 13:1; Galatians 2:20). Even now He continues to endure with us and serve us in love as our Great High Priest at the Father’s right hand (Hebrews 7:25). “Therefore…let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:1-2). Let us look to Christ for the mercy and grace we need, not only for forgiveness, but also for the strength to endure with others in love. Suggestions for prayer Ask God for forgiveness for the times you’ve given up on loving others when life has become difficult, or they have become difficult. Rest in God’s love and forgiveness in Christ and pray for the Spirit to empower you with a Christ-like love that endures through the good times and the bad times. Rev. Brian Cochran is ordained in the United Reformed Churches in North America and has served as the pastor of Redeemer Reformation Church in Regina, SK, for 14 years. This month he starts a new call to Grace URC in Torrance, CA. Get this devotional delivered directly to your phone each day via our RP App. This devotional is made available by the Nearer To God Devotional team, who also make available in print, for purchase, at NTGDevotional.com....

Daily devotional

September 20 - Love hopes all things

“Love…hopes all things.” - 1 Corinthians 13:7 Scripture Reading: Ephesians 2:1-10; 1 Corinthians 13:7 The idea here is that love hopes for the best in others. Why? Because we believe in the God who raises the dead. God is able to take spiritually dead people and resurrect them spiritually (Ephesians 2:5). He’s able to regenerate their hearts, forgive them of their sins, and transform them by His Spirit. Indeed, “nothing will be impossible with God” (Luke 1:37). Are you the type of person who just assumes that others will never change for the better? Turn away from such thinking and put on love for others. For love, there are no hopeless cases. Paul modelled this in how he treated the Corinthians. When you read 1 Corinthians you are tempted to think that if there was ever a hopeless case of a church, it’s the church in Corinth. But Paul perseveres with them in love. He hopes in God’s power to change them by the Spirit, through the Gospel. And so, he continues to address them as saints in Christ, to preach the Gospel to them, and to call them to walk in a manner worthy of the Gospel. So too, let us not give up on one another. Remember that you were once dead in your sins and trespasses, but God mercifully and powerfully made you alive in Christ (Ephesians 2:4-5). And all who are in Christ are “His workmanship” (Ephesians 2:10). Therefore, let us always have hope that God is able to change others for the better. Suggestions for prayer Confess your lack of faith in God’s power to change the hearts of others. Rest in God’s love and forgiveness in Christ and ask Him to grant you the love that hopes for the best in others because of the immeasurable greatness of His power toward us who believe (Ephesians 1:19-20). Rev. Brian Cochran is ordained in the United Reformed Churches in North America and has served as the pastor of Redeemer Reformation Church in Regina, SK, for 14 years. This month he starts a new call to Grace URC in Torrance, CA. Get this devotional delivered directly to your phone each day via our RP App. This devotional is made available by the Nearer To God Devotional team, who also make available in print, for purchase, at NTGDevotional.com....

Daily devotional

September 19 - Love believes all things

"Love…believes all things" - 1 Corinthians 13:7 Scripture reading: Psalm 15:1-5; 1 Corinthians 15:7 The idea here is not that love believes anything and everything. The idea is that love believes the best about people. As John Calvin put it, “not that a Christian…strips himself of wisdom and discernment…not that he has forgotten how to distinguish black and white!” He adds that love avoids wronging “his brother by an unfriendly suspicion.” Are you the type of person who tends to interpret the actions of others in the worst possible light? Do you impute motives to others? Love believes the best about people and gives them the benefit of the doubt. Love exercises the judgment of charity. Isn’t this how we want others to view us? Didn’t Jesus exhort us, “love your neighbour as yourself?” (Matthew 22:39). What motivates us to love like this? The love of Christ in the Gospel does. Christ never assumed the worst in others. He never judged others actions without knowing the full truth. He always judges rightly, based on solid evidence. He is the one “who walks blamelessly and does what is right and speaks truth in his heart; who does not slander with his tongue and does no evil to his neighbor” (Psalm 15:2-3). “He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth…He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness” (1 Peter 2:22, 24). Therefore, let us love our neighbour as ourself by believing the best about others. Suggestions for prayer Confess your sins of being uncharitable towards others. Rest in God’s love and forgiveness in Christ and pray that the Spirit of Christ would produce the fruit of loving others with a judgment of charity. Rev. Brian Cochran is ordained in the United Reformed Churches in North America and has served as the pastor of Redeemer Reformation Church in Regina, SK, for 14 years. This month he starts a new call to Grace URC in Torrance, CA. Get this devotional delivered directly to your phone each day via our RP App. This devotional is made available by the Nearer To God Devotional team, who also make available in print, for purchase, at NTGDevotional.com....

Daily devotional

September 18 - Love bears all things

“Love bears all things.” - 1 Corinthians 13:7 Scripture Reading: 1 Peter 2:22-25; 1 Corinthians 13:7 The word “bears” has the idea of “to cover” or “to pass over in silence.” As a noun, this word refers to a “roof.” We could say that love in a relationship is like a roof that covers a house and can cope with all kinds of weather. That doesn’t mean we can’t pray for better weather in a relationship! In love and humility, we do strive to help others become more like Christ, even as we first remove the plank from our own eye (Matthew 7:3). But along the way we bear with others in love and cover a multitude of sins (1 Peter 4:8). When we love someone, we put up with a lot. We don’t forsake them when the relationship gets difficult. Rather, we love because Christ first loved us while we were difficult to love. This doesn’t come naturally for us. We must meditate deeply on the Gospel and pray for the Spirit to conform us into the image of Christ. When you find it difficult to bear with someone in love, remember that Jesus bears with you in love. He even bore the cross for you, so that you don’t have to bear the judgment of God for your sins (1 Peter 2:24). In Christ, all of our sins are covered, like a roof over us. We are hidden in Christ from the wrath of God. In gratitude, let us bear with others in love. Suggestions for prayer Confess where you have fallen short of the love that bears all things and covers a multitude of sins. Rest in God’s love and forgiveness in Christ and pray for the Spirit’s strength to love like Christ, even when it’s difficult. Rev. Brian Cochran is ordained in the United Reformed Churches in North America and has served as the pastor of Redeemer Reformation Church in Regina, SK, for 14 years. This month he starts a new call to Grace URC in Torrance, CA. Get this devotional delivered directly to your phone each day via our RP App. This devotional is made available by the Nearer To God Devotional team, who also make available in print, for purchase, at NTGDevotional.com....

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September 25 - The age of childhood vs. the age of adulthood

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September 24 - We know in part

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September 23 - Love never ends

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September 22 - Enter his gates with thanksgiving

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September 21 - Love endures all things

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September 20 - Love hopes all things

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September 19 - Love believes all things

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September 18 - Love bears all things