Dear Friends,

Just when you thought you had things all lined up,everything seems to fall apart. Why? What should you do? Today’s devotional gives you some great clues. God bless you.

Because of Calvary,

John Janney

• Romans 12:1-2 (ESV)

  “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

“I said, ‘Let me walk in the field’;
He said, ‘Nay, walk in the town.
I said, ‘There are no flowers there;’
He said, ‘No flowers, but a crown.’

 I said, ‘But the skies are black,
There is nothing but noise and din.’
And He wept as He sent me back,
‘There is more,’ He said; ‘there is sin.’

 I said, ‘But the air is thick,
And the fogs are veiling the sun.’
He answered, ‘Yet souls are sick,
And souls in the dark undone.’

 I said, ‘I will miss the light,
And friend will miss me, they say.’
He answered me, ‘Choose tonight,
If I am to miss you, or they.’

 I pleaded for time to be given;
He said, ‘It is hard to decide?
It will not seem hard in heaven
To have followed the steps of your Guide.’

 I cast one look at the field,
Then set my face to the town.
He said, ‘My child, do you yield?
Will you leave the flowers for the crown?’

 Then into His hand went mine,
And into my heart came He,
And I walked in a light divine,
The path I feared to see.”

[George Macdonald in The Speaker’s Bible XII edited by James Hastings and Edward Hastings, (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, n.d.), p. 148]