What do you think of when you hear the word: devotional? Specifically, what comes to mind as the content of a devotional? For many a devotional is spiritual sugary tea warming us in the morning. Certainly it can be that but is it always that?
In the Book of Homilies, Cranmer opens with an uplifting account of the glorious gain of reading Scripture [see ‘the Promise of Scripture’ ]. But when we turn to the second homily we find ‘sermon on the misery of all mankind’. Not exactly a warm fuzzy for the morning! Reading Scripture aright brings both comfort and conviction.
We must, then, look for conviction of sin in our devotional reading of Scripture. As the homily puts it, “The Scripture shutteth up all under sin, that the promise by the faith of Jesus Christ should be given unto them that believe.”[1]
The two halves of that sentence must be attended to. The Scripture shuts everything under sin so that the promise by the faith of Jesus Christ should be given. Allowing God’s Word to give us a true view of ourselves is God’s means to bring in the promise.
This true view of ourselves comes first by showing “as it were in a glass [a mirror], we may learn to know ourselves to be but ground, earth, and ashes, and that to earth and ashes we shall return.”[2] That is, we are not self sufficient. We don’t come from ourselves and ultimately have no control of our beginning or end however hard we try to persuade ourselves we do.
Scripture also teaches us that “we be crab-trees, that can bring forth no apples.” Jesus said a tree is known by it’s fruit. Yet a correct view of ourselves shows that we can bring forth no good fruit from ourselves. “We do not love God so much as we are bound to do, with all our heart, mind, and power: we do not fear God so much as we ought to do: we do not pray to God, but with great and many imperfections: we give, forgive, believe, live, and hope imperfectly: we speak, think, and do imperfectly.”[3]
We need humbling because the heart is deceitful above all things (Jeremiah 17:9). It’s easier to run to obvious encouragements. Yet if we fail to confess our sins to God we’re like a toddler that thinks if he covers his eyes with his hands he’s invisible. God knows we’re sinners whether we confess it or not!
In the end, acknowledgment of the misery of all mankind leads to humility and humility brings us to heed the exhortation: “Let us all make open confession, with the Prodigal son, to our Father.”[4]
We may agree with this notionally but how often do we ask the Lord to humble us when we read Scripture? Or, do we allow God to bring us to see the true sinfulness of sin before we move on to something else?
Perhaps this week as you pray before reading Scripture do just that. Ask the Lord to give you a clear vision of your own sinful helplessness that you may learn to cast yourself, like the prodigal Son, into the arms of your loving heavenly Father.
Footnotes
[1] Sermons, or Homilies: Appointed to Be Read in Churches, [Facs. of ed. publ.] London, Prayer-Book and Homily Soc., 1833 (Berith, 1999), p. 8.
[2] Sermons, or Homilies, p. 7.
[3] Sermons, or Homilies, p. 10.
[4] Sermons, or Homilies, p. 10.
________
Benjamin Lucas trained at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford and has an MA in Theology with the University of Wales. He is married to Emily and they have three children. He is the Associate Vicar at All Saints' Lindfield.
Our Anglican Foundation Series has a book on the Homilies by Gerald Bray. Check it out or buy here.
Views expressed in blogs published by the Latimer Trust are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position of the Latimer Trust.