Thoughts for the End of the Day

Thoughts for the End of the Day

“Let my prayer be counted as incense before you, and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice!” (Psalm 141:2)

The evening comes to a close.  The Book is taken once more and the day is brought into review beneath the eyes of Him Who is naught but holy.  How sad it is to look back and see the things that have displeased him.

And just before retiring for the night, I turn once more to find Him in His Word and worship Him there.  I read for my closing meditation that description of the throne of God where the redeemed of earth are gathered. There we are seen, our position already guaranteed by all that our Savior is, seated with Him in the Heavenly places.  “And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal.”  I remember that the sea, in Solomon’s temple, was the laver where the priests of the Lord washed, after they had offered up the lamb.  I know that it is the symbol of my daily cleansing through the Word, even as the altar is the symbol of my justification, but here in the passage I am meditating the sea is of glass, like unto crystal.  The Word has taken its eternal form, there is no more need for me to come to God for cleansing.  How the heart is filled with praise, with adoration, with worship in the Spirit and in truth.  There shall come a day without an evening that brings the time of confession.  There shall come a time when I stand before God in all the holiness of Jesus Christ, in my condition, as well as in my position, with my old nature gone forever, with the root of sin then destroyed forever, since it passes from me with the death of this body, or its transformation at the coming of my Lord.

Then quietly to rest, thinking of Him, talking to Him, with meditations that even He has called sweet.  And I know that whether I wake to a day of storm or of calm, I shall wake with Him.  Whether I am to know the calm sunny days of work and blessing, or the battles of illness and troubles that beset all members of this race, I can none the less pillow my head upon the promises of God, with the certain knowledge that all things will work together for my good, and that nothing shall ever touch me until it has been passed through the loving will of my Heavenly Father.  Only He knows the thoughts that He thinks towards me, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give me this expected end (Jeremiah 29:11).