Deeper Life #214

That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.

—Matthew 5:45

DURING A RAINY SEASON, IT is not only the flowers and the trees and the sweet-smelling grass and the wholesome vegetables and fruit that are watered, but also the noxious weeds, spiteful animals, vicious insects, and reptiles, which endanger human beings.

During every religious awakening, the good and the bad, the right and the wrong, the false and the true are prospered. This is an aspect of God’s truth that we ought to remember.

We cannot guide God’s blessings so that they fall on our plot and leave our neighbor’s alone. That is the essence of the denominational spirit, and there is a denominational spirit in us all. (The person who says he belongs to no denomination is a denomination of one.) We tend to build up walls around ourselves and imagine that God’s blessings will only fall inside our plot and not on our brother’s; but that is not so.

Great freedom comes to the person who realizes that God sends His rain on the good and bad!

Prayer Thought: I praise You, Lord, for the sunshine and rain of Your blessing.

SUGGESTED READING: Isaiah 55:6–13