WHEREIN HAST THOU LOVED US ?

 

EVENING DEVOTION by James Smith

SEPTEMBER 23

 

Malachi 1:2

I have loved you, saith the LORD. Yet ye say,

Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau

Jacob’s brother? saith the LORD: yet I loved Jacob,

 
This is a strange question, especially as proceeding from the Lord’s people.
 
But it is only speaking out, what many feel within.
 
Do you ask, wherein has the Lord loved you.
 
Look at the gifts he has conferred upon you.
 
His Son to die for you.
 
His Spirit to quicken, teach, and sanctify you.
 
His angels to minister unto you.
 
His covenant to secure you.
 
His glorious kingdom to be eternally possessed and enjoyed by you.
 
Look at the account he makes of you, he calls you his love, the dearly beloved of his soul.
 
His jewels, his crown, his dear son.
 
If he compare you with the world, 

  you are gold, that dross—

   you are wheat, that chaff—

    you are sheep—, 

          that swine—or goats, or serpents.
 
Look at the relations he sustains to you as a Father

  —a Husband

  —a Brother

  —a Friend.
 
The office he fills for you, 

  an Advocate

  —a Captain

   —a head

     —a King.
 
Look at what he has already done for you, provided a righteousness, 

  conferred a pardon, 

    given his peace, 

      appointed the Mediator, 

         blessed you with all spiritual blessing.
 
Surely you will exclaim, “his love is wonderful, beyond comparison, beyond expression.”
 

Lord, give me with a grateful heart,

Thy mercy to improve;

And Ebenezers daily rear

To praise the God of love.

 
James Smith