An Excerpt from “Daily Meditations”
George Brown
Lisa Cooke writes: I have been reading the Daily Meditations book by George Bowen and came across this devotional that I thought was very appropriate to our day, even though it was written in the 1800’s. The desire for God to accommodate Himself to man seems to be a temptation common to man in every generation. It is a temptation we must recognize and resist. We were made in His image, not He in our image. Here is that devotional, copied as Bowen wrote it, written with the wording of his day.
“If we believe not, yet He abideth faithful; He cannot deny Himself.”
– 2 Timothy 2:13
He will not modify His purposes to suit our unbelief. What madness to suppose that He will imitate us, and seeing that we make light of His faithfulness, make light of it Himself. Let God be true and every man a liar. God once declared His purpose of bringing a deluge upon the earth. Men would not believe the terrific word. The whole human race combined to rear up a wall of unbelief under the protection of which they thought themselves safe. On the one hand were all mankind with their “no;” on the other God with His “yes.” Unbelievers thought themselves safe in their vast numbers and perfect concord, but the Word of God must be fulfilled whether a single individual be the opposer or a whole world.
The thought of the immense numbers that are without Christ in the world leads many to conclude that God will modify His declared purpose. Where there are so many to be punished it is unlikely that the penalty will be inflicted. According to this reasoning, man has saved himself by getting the whole human family to persevere in rebellion. God delighteth in mercy; but He cannot cease to be a just and faithful God. It is altogether too much to expect that He will follow the example of man, and give up the attributes of faithfulness, truthfulness, and holiness, after man has denied them to Him. The question from the foundation of the world has been, shall man accommodate himself to God, or shall God accommodate Himself to man? The Bible says, “He that believeth not is condemned, there is no saving name but that of Christ; no man cometh unto the Father but by Him:” and it is not denied that the Bible says these things. But, it is said, God must accommodate Himself to the stubbornness of man. Vain hope. He abideth faithful, though not a believer were found in the earth.
Dost thou, oh Christian, render due honor to the inviolable faithfulness of God? I fear lest occasionally thou incline to some forbidden path, hoping that God will not visit you with the rod. How unkind in you to set up God’s love to you against His love to His Word! Would you actually introduce division and conflict among the very perfections of God? Christ has never promised that He will become a sinner to gratify you. He will remain faithful; truth driven from every threshold of man, finds an everlasting asylum with Him.
Happy are they who have on their side the adamantine faithfulness of Christ, and build upon it all their hopes of happiness.
Daily Meditations, George Bowen, Page 240
