Daily Devotionals for August 14, 2026

Does not this word " slothful" accurately characterize the habit of mind of most professors of religion? While we behold them diligently in the pursuit of worldly good, laboring untiringly on in the acquisition of wealth; while we see them exercising circumspection, vigilance, forethought, sagacity in their temporal vocation, and giving to it the best energies of their nature, we see them indolent and sluggish in all that relates to their heavenly calling. They read the newspapers with a...

The devotional works that have appeared have been so varied as to make classification difficult. Some of the great names are Meister Eckhart, Bernard of Clairvaux, Jan van Ruysbroeck, Michael Molinos, John of the Cross, Thomas Traherne, Richard Rolle, William Law, Walter Hilton, Francis de Sales, Jakob Boehme and Gerhart Tersteegen. To those might be added the more familiar names of Fenelon, Guyon and Thomas Kempis.

To a large extent these were universal Christians who...

"And I will for this afflict the seed of David, but not for ever." 1 Kings 11:39

In the family of grace there is discipline, and that discipline is severe enough to make it an evil and a bitter thing to sin. Solomon, turned aside by his foreign wives, had set up other gods and grievously provoked the God of his father; therefore, ten parts out of twelve of the kingdom were rent away and set up as a rival state. This was a sore...

It was a remarkable thing that the man who was never to die, for whom God had ordained an infinitely better lot, the man who should be carried to heaven in a chariot of fire, and be translated, that he should not see death-should thus pray, "Let me die, I am no better than my fathers." We have here a memorable proof that God does not always answer prayer in kind, though he always does in effect. He gave Elias something better than that which he asked for, and thus really heard and answered...

I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day.Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His...

CIRCUMSTANCES sometimes regulate duties. The Lord's people have to pass through many changes; they are strangers and pilgrims here. Sometimes prosperity calls for rejoicing, and sometimes adversity calls for consideration. If prayer appears to be shut out, our petitions seem to be denied, and we cannot enjoy the life and power of religion; it is the day of adversity. If providence frowns, and the heart contracts and becomes hard, it is a day of adversity; now we should consider, Is there not...

Matthew 26:36-56

There was something strangely significant even in the name of the place where Jesus endured His midnight agony. Gethsemane means oil press. It was the place where oil was crushed out of the olives. Olive oil was very valuable. It was used chiefly for food and for lighting. The sufferings of Christ have yielded the highest blessings to the world - food for men's...

Upstarts frequently usurp the highest places, while the truly great pine in obscurity. This is a riddle in providence whose solution will one day gladden the hearts of the upright; but it is so common a fact, that none of us should murmur if it should fall to our own lot. When our Lord was upon earth, although he is the Prince of the kings of the earth, yet he walked the footpath of weariness and service as the Servant of servants: what wonder is it if his followers, who are princes of the...

Death working in me works life in you" (2 Cor. 4:12, Cony.).

At first the heart hunger for maturity in the Lord Jesus is personal, subjective - and necessarily so. Later, when the path to maturity is known and entered upon, this hunger is projected to His Body, and becomes sacrificially objective.

"The great lack...

Matthew says, "And when Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and laid it in his own new tomb." Mark says, "And he [Joseph] bought fine linen, and took him [Jesus] down, and wrapped him in the linen, and laid him in a sepulchre which was hewn out of a rock." Luke writes, "And the women also, which came with him from Galilee, followed after, and beheld the sepulchre, and how his body was laid." John says, ". . . There was a garden; and in the garden a new sepulchre,...

Sing, O heavens! Be joyful, O earth! And break out in singing, O mountains! For the Lord has comforted His people, and will have mercy on His afflicted. § Behold, God is my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid; “for Yah, the Lord, is my strength and my song; He also has become my salvation.” § The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in Him, and I am helped; therefore my heart greatly rejoices, and with my song I will praise Him. § My soul shall be joyful in my God; for...

There is nothing more beautiful in God's spiritual creation than a believer who demonstrates a true spirit of brokenness. Even God Himself finds such a person irresistible; He can resist the proud and haughty (James 4:6), but He can't resist the broken and humble.

In our natural condition, none of us is broken. We are like a wild donkey's colt - rebellious, stubborn, impetuous. We resist the bit, the bridle and the saddle of God's will. We...

For Reading and Meditation:     Ecclesiastes 11:5-6

There are some things in life that, try as we might, we will never fully understand. This is Solomon's point in the verses before us today. We don't know which course the wind will take, or how bones are formed in a tiny fetus, but it happens anyway. And why? Because God is at work in everything, and the best thing...