Daily Promises by Herbert Lockyer

Designed for personal devotion and study, each meditation can also be used effectively as a meeting opener or group discussion starter.

"March 25"

""Dwell in the depths...dwells securely...dwelling alone."" - Jeremiah 49:30-31

We live in a superficial age. Deep is not calling unto deep (see Ps. 42:7). In the religious world we live too much on the surface. We prefer a dwelling place on Easy Street and shun the more difficult road. Light reading appeals to us more than hard thinking. Ours is not an unchanging love. Charles Kingsley, to the daughter of Earl Haldan, wrote: Be good, sweet maid, and let who will be clever; Do noble things, not dream them, all day long; And so make Life, and Death, and that For Ever One grand sweet song. Alas, too many of us love to be dreamers rather than doers. In Faustus, a sixteenth-century poem by Christopher Marlowe, Helen is extolled for having a face that launched a thousand ships, and Mephistopheles is made to say: “There will I dwell, for Heaven be in these lips.” We know, however, that ours is the assurance of dwelling in heaven because of the promise of the Savior. Here and now we have the superb dwelling place Jeremiah wrote of where we can dwell deeply and securely—a city the villagers were urged to flee to so that they could be at rest, and dwell safely. The Lord would have us live without unnecessary care. But such a carefree life is only ours as we dwell deeply in Him in whom there is peace. Having such an impregnable dwelling place deep in His heart, we are safe from calamities that would overtake us. We must also be determined to dwell alone if we would dwell securely. Our failure is that we live too much with the world and are too laden with its cares and anxieties. Alone with Him who trod the winepress alone, we are guarded against finding ourselves in “a dweffing for jackals, a desolation forever” (Jer. 49:33). Ask for deliverance from fear, worry remorse, and superficiality. We bless Thee for Thy peace, 0 God, Deep as the soundless sea, Which falls like sunshine on the road Of those who trust in Thee.