What does God want us to do every day?

It is then our duty, as it is our privilege, to consult the will of our God and Father day by day, and throughout each day. In our prayer and in His word we find the means; or, as our Lord Himself put the case perfectly, "If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done to you." For He begins with our constant reliance on Him, and He ends with the assurance of our having what we ask; for, so doing, one only asks what is according to God's will.

It will, perhaps be said that the Christian ought to devote every day to the Lord. Most surely; we are the Lord's, in the very fullest and highest sense. All we have and all we are belongs to Him. This we fully, gladly, own. We are called to do everything in His Name, and to His glory. It is our high privilege to buy and sell, eat and drink, yea, to carry on all our business, under His eye and in the fear and love of His holy Name. We should not put our hand to anything, on any day in the week, on which we could not, with the fullest confidence, ask the Lord's blessing.

We are to be concerned about yielding to God in all of these details day by day. This means constant exercise in communion with Him, both in meditation on His Word and in prayer, along with the self-judgment that this will rightly produce.

that is to say, if you are saved, you will seek to walk through this world glorifying God every day. As Christians we have to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. Your prayer every morning will be, “Lord, I am about to enter upon another day. I have never before travelled the road which lies just before me. I shall have difficulties to contend with; there are pits, and snares, and traps laid for me by the enemy of my soul. It is an untrodden and unknown road that lies before me. I pray that Thy grace may keep me and guard me, that I may glorify Thee. So keep me till I reach the rest above.” That is working out your salvation, because at long last you will get to the end of your journey, you will reach the glory. Salvation is a God-given thing. But you must have it, before you can work it out.

Begin and end each day with God in prayer. Speak to Him often. Speak to Him under all circumstances. If you have sinned, confess it to Him immediately, never wait. Make God your daily friend and be sure to tell Him everything that happens — your joys and your sorrows.

The Psalmist said, "Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud" (Psa. 55:17). Daniel "kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God" (Dan. 6:10). So we should also do if we would be healthy Christians; do not begin the day without reading your Bible and praying to God. If you neglect to do so, you will soon be a defeated, starving Christian. Besides regular times of prayer each day, the believer is exhorted to be "continuing instant in prayer" and to "pray without ceasing" (Rom. 12:12; 1 Thess. 5:17). The dependent attitude of prayer should always characterize the child of God.

How often we put ourselves and our interests first in our prayers. It was not thus that the Lord taught His disciples. He taught them to put God first. To pray that His name might be hallowed, and then to stretch out in their desires to the utmost bounds of the earth, to plead that every evil imagination might be overthrown and every evil work might be judged, and every will might be subdued to God's will, and that the whole earth might be filled with the glory of God. Then, when the heart has reached up to the sacred glory of God's name and broadened out to include every habitation of man, we may ask for our daily needs. And then we shall not ask selfishly but confidently, joyfully, adoringly, with a sense in our souls of the greatness of our Father's name and of the blessedness of His will, subject to which we ourselves have determined to live, for otherwise our prayer that that will might be done on earth would be glaring hypocrisy.

But more. Though in tribulation, there could yet be a positive rejoicing, not intermittently but evermore, consistently, which is really only normal when the Lord Jesus Himself is the Object of our joy. And prayer too is to be as constant. At all times the heart may be lifted up to God, so real a habit that every occasion of need, of difficulty, or of distress will find us voluntarily and immediately crying to Him from the heart. This too is to he attended with thanksgiving "in everything." We cannot of course give thanks for what is sinful, but in the midst of whatever evil or good this thankful spirit is to be ours. The importance of this is pressed upon us in the fact of its being "the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you." If we are honest in saying we desire the will of God, then here it is, and no excuse can be accepted for lack of giving of thanks.

But besides this we need instruction and direction for our daily walk, and this we have in the Scriptures as well as doctrine. Jehovah, through Moses, said to the children of Israel, "And these words which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart, and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up; and thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes, and thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates." It was not only that they might be read by such as happened to pass by, but that in the light of them these might see a life concordant therewith. It is what the world expects from the Christian, and rightly so. Where the eye is single, the body is full of light. Let it not be said, in truth, of any of those who profess to know Christ and to keep His word, "They say, and do not."

We shall find ample "instruction in righteousness" in our Lord's sublime discourse on the Mount. Who will pretend that the Christian is above and beyond it? It is good for us to enjoy our heavenly portion, but even this may become a snare if it lead us to forget that we are called, as long as we are left down here, to be practically, and in all reality, righteous. All our ways should be in accordance with the word of God. We need, not only instructions and directions, but even commandments. It is in John's Gospel, where on the very first page we are brought into the relationship of sons, or rather of children, that the Lord speaks most of commandments. Granted that they are in keeping with the relationship; but the higher the relationship, the more strictly is obedience enjoined. Our blessed Lord Himself is the pattern of perfect obedience. Has He not said, "I have not spoken of (or, from) myself, but the Father which sent me, He gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak, and I know that His commandment is life everlasting: whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak." The very words that He was commanded by His Father to speak to His disciples became commandments from the Father to them. "If ye love me, keep my commandments," saith He, and again, "He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me, and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him." Again, "If a man love me he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him." Again, "If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in His love."

Here we have, very prominently before us, the special characteristic of the entire book of Deuteronomy. "Hearken," and "do;" that ye may "live" and "possess." This is a universal and abiding principle. It was true for Israel, and it is true for us. The pathway of life and the true secret of possession is simple obedience to the holy commandments of God. We see this all through the inspired volume, from cover to cover. God has given us His word, not to speculate upon it, or discuss it; but that we may obey it. And it is as we, through grace, yield a hearty and happy obedience to our Father's statutes and judgements, that we tread the bright pathway of life, and enter into the reality of all that God has treasured up for us in Christ. "He that has my commandments, and keeps them, he it is that loves me; and he that loves me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him."