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Octavius Winslow, 1856 (edited for
today's reader by Larry E. Wilson, 2010)
Bible Verse
"Our prayer is for your perfection" (2 Corinthians 13:9, NIV).
Devotional
Seek ever larger degrees of grace. Let your standard be the loftiest and your aim the highest. Do not put any limits on that which God himself has not limited. Never cease expecting until God ceases giving.
If you are satisfied with your present measure of grace, you could not have a worse sign. To be content to go nowhere in your walk with God casts doubt on the reality of your knowing God. It is an essential property of grace that it grows. It is the immortal seed of God; by its very nature, it must germinate. If your faith does not increase, then your doubts will. And if your grace does not strengthen, then your fears will.
Fill the basket with pure wheat, as someone has said, so there will be no room for chaff. If you desire superior practice, aim after superior principles. Low principles invariably lead to low practice. Guard against anything that tends to impair the vigor of your grace. Watch against your besetting sins, your greatest weaknesses, your strongest temptations. Beware of your own heart. Beware of self-confidence. Beware of idolatry, of valuing anything—even good things!—more than you value God. Beware of the world.
Beware, too, of any neglect of the means of grace. God himself has appointed his conduits for you to trust him and for him to deliver his grace to you. Beware that you do not despise a single one of them. Neglected worship, a forsaken throne of grace, an unread Bible, will soon bring leanness into your soul. God has just as much ordained the means of grace as he has appointed the grace of the means.
Jesus, merciful and mild,
lead me as a helpless child:
on no other arm but thine
would my weary soul recline.
Thou art ready to forgive,
thou canst bid the sinner live;
guide the wand'rer, day by day,
in the strait and narrow way.
Thou canst fit me by thy grace
for the heav'nly dwelling-place;
all thy promises are sure,
ever shall thy love endure;
then what more could I desire,
how to greater bliss aspire?
All I need, in thee I see;
thou art all in all to me.
Jesus, Savior all Divine,
hast thou made me truly thine?
Hast thou bought me by thy blood?
Reconciled my heart to God?
Hearken to my tender prayer,
let me thine own image bear,
let me love thee more and more
till I reach heav'n's blissful shore.
(Thomas Hastings, 1858)
Be sure to read the Preface by Octavius Winslow and A Note from the Editor by Larry E. Wilson.
Larry Wilson is an ordained minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. In addition to having served as the General Secretary of the Committee on Christian Education of the OPC (2000–2004) and having written a number of articles and booklets (such as God's Words for Worship and Why Does the OPC Baptize Infants) for New Horizons and elsewhere, he has pastored OPC churches in Minnesota, Indiana, and Ohio. We are grateful to him for his editing of Morning Thoughts, the OPC Daily Devotional for 2025.
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