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We Are Given Strength for a Single Day

Morning Dew

Today's Devotional

And as your days, so shall your strength be —Deuteronomy 33:25 (ESV)

Christian! mark again these words. They do not give the pledge, that we shall not feel the burden and heat of the day. All they promise is that we shall get safely through. They do not say, that we shall not feel the might of our duties, trials, temptations, conflicts; all they say is, that we shall have strength to bear their weight, and journey on with our load. The grace imparted, will then be “sufficient” for us—not superabundant, but sufficient for our actual necessities—strength equal to our day. Christian! distress not yourself about impending evils. You think you have not strength for the hour of sickness. Use the strength you now have, in the day of health, and the promise will not then fail you. You fear you have not strength for the thorny path of adversity, tread humbly and thankfully the path of prosperity, and you will not then be refused consolation and support. You fear you are unprepared to meet the King of Terrors and to enter the gloomy valley. Live to the glory of God and, as beseems your Christian profession, and when you are summoned to depart, His rod and staff will then uphold and comfort you. It is by putting forth the strength already gained that you may hope to stand your ground, when greater exertion and more vigorous effort are demanded. Strength to encounter the tempest will be given when the tempest rages; strength to breast the foaming surges will be given when the hurricane has actually come; strength to grapple with the last enemy will be given when he comes forth to meet you. Yes, Christian! be assured, grace and strength will be imparted when you need them, as certainly as they will be withheld before you need them. He who guides you, knows your necessities and in the day of trouble will not leave you comfortless. Journey on then with firmness, relying on the promise of Him who is faithful and true! Your day is coming—you will, ere long, enter into your final rest, and repose from all your labors; you will take possession of the promised inheritance, and will then acknowledge with a grateful heart, “As my days so my strength has been.”

About the author and the source

Isabel Charlotte Garbett compiled a devotional of excerpts from Christian writers. Unfortunately we have been able to learn little about her and she provided no information about her sources beyond their names. She must have had some relationship to Edward Garbett (1817–1887), a well-known evangelical pastor, lecturer, and writer, because he wrote the preface to her book and also compiled a similar work of morning and evening prayers.

“April 23” from The Pathway of Promise in Morning Dew, Daily Readings for the People of God, Selected from the Writings of the Choicest Ancient and Modern Divines, compiled by Isabel Charlotte Garbett. Bath:Binns and Goodwin, 1864.

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