What does God want to tell me today?

Firstly, the Devil wanted Him to change the stones into bread. The Lord Jesus could say, "The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned" (Isa.50:4), and He could say, "Great is thy faithfulness" (Lam.3:23). I wonder about us, do we have these experiences morning by morning, do we listen to what God has to say to us through His word? "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God" (Matt.4:4). The Lord Jesus received fresh communication every morning. Do we receive fresh communication every morning? Well we can. Not something that has not been revealed, but something that is in the Bible, the word of God, this is how we receive these wonderful communications.

This may be prevented by being careful to put into practice whatever He shows us is His will. It is the heart desirous to do His will that is taught of Him (John 7:17). This again brings us back to the necessity of reading the Bible daily. For God shows us His word "here a little, and there a little," as we require it. And, so to speak, God will set us our daily tasks if we only humbly, reverently approach His word and attentively listen to what He has to say.

God speaks to us in His blessed Book, making known to us all the glories of His grace in Christ Jesus; and we find in the sacred letters - that is, in the Bible (the Christian's library) - that which answers to every difficulty, no matter how trying the times may be; and we are made wise unto salvation by faith which is in Christ Jesus.

Let us dwell a little on this. It is not that the scriptures were given by inspiration of men. It is not what they thought, but absolutely of God. He has not left us in uncertainty, but has surely spoken to us, and His word is truth. It is not what man says. It is not what the church says. May we have an ear to hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies. What a priceless treasure the holy scriptures are then, God speaking to us. It will not do to look at them through human spectacles, so to speak, or hear them explained by human authority. We must individually hear what God says to us. To say I can only believe what God says, if my minister or my church says it is so, is to put man between my soul and God, yea, to exalt man above God. Yet how often this is done.

We have to do with God today. We may leave tomorrow to Him. He is our God, our Father today, He will be the same tomorrow when we meet it. The Lord did not teach His disciples to pray about tomorrow, but "Give us this day our daily bread."

Give God His place. I delight to think that these are the only terms of the blessing, because they are so simple that the most ignorant one cannot fail to understand them. And then such is His heart (with whom you have to do) that He will "open the windows of heaven, and pour you out such a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it." And notice that He says, "Prove me now" - it is not tomorrow, it is now - it is today. God always deals with the present. "Today," "now" - these are words with which He seeks to draw souls to Himself, and are not you one of them? for I address believers. You have come to Him; but Peter says, "To whom coming." (1 Peter 2:4.) Have you any lack today? - a care, an anxiety, a want - only one? Come to Him, then; give Him His place. Think of Him first, and not of the matter in hand, and you shall prove His faithfulness to His word.

Some people like just to open the Bible and take the first verse their eye falls upon as a direct message from God to them. Is this a right procedure?

Hardly. We are quite willing to believe that there have been occasions when people have in that way lighted on remarkable verses that have come to them with much point, yet any such haphazard method practised in a habitual way is unworthy of the inspired Word of God.

You must indeed first receive the truth in this way. God will not communicate anything to you or to me directly, as He did to prophets and kings of old. We cannot now expect a vision or a revelation. We have everything complete in the written word — everything that is good for us to know; and we are left in the world to learn these things. But, beloved friends, the question for each of us to consider is just this: in learning scripture have we been fully “assured” of it, have we laid hold of it with our whole being, has the sum of our affections been concentrated upon the Living Person Who is the centre and subject and substance of the revelation of God's holy word?

No wonder! if "by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God doth man live." What a sustenance of the true life within us to be thus, day by day, receiving the messages of His will, guided by that wondrous Voice, learning continually more the tenderness of His love for us: "He wakeneth morning by morning; He wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learner" (Isa. 50:4). This is the utterance prophetically of the Lord Himself: how blessed to be able to make it our own, and thus to have the fulfilment of those words: "I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way in which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye."

Nothing so much helps the Christian to endure the trials of his path as the habit of seeing God in everything. There is no circumstance, be it ever so trivial or ever so commonplace, which may not be regarded as a messenger from God, if only the ear be circumcised to hear, and the mind spiritual to understand the message. If we lose sight of this valuable truth, life, in many instances at least, will be but a dull monotony, presenting nothing beyond the most ordinary circumstances. On the other hand, if we could but remember, as we start each day on our course, that the hand of our Father can be traced in every scene — if we could see in the smallest, as well as in the most weighty circumstances, traces of the divine presence, how full of deep interest would each day's history be found!