December 22

Read: II Peter 1:2-8

His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness (II Peter 1:3).

Holiness And Everyday Living

“The majority of people do not have great, romantic experiences in life. Their course leads over a more or less undulating plain. Every day is much like every other day. The necessities of economic life drive them to their hours of labor and of rest. Their occupation brings them the large percentage of contacts with others, and hence their opportunities for doing good.

“It is our common obligation to ‘attend the means of grace,’ such as family and secret prayer, and the services of the church… It is our obligation, without exception, to maintain a standard of conduct and conversation that will commend the profession we make and make it clear to all that we are conscious always that God sees and knows and cares and that we are responsible to Him now and at the judgment and in eternity… Carelessness about keeping one’s word even in small matters, and about meeting his bills or meeting his financial obligations will limit, if not actually destroy, the value of a Christian professor’s influence.

“This is equivalent to saying that what we all need most is grace to live the common life in an uncommon manner. To be patient where others would become irritable, to be cheerful where others would be possessed of fear, to be kind when others would be resentful, to be pure when others would break under temptation, to reject all price offered for doing wrong, to just exemplify the spirit of the Master in the commonplaces among common people — this, to the great majority of us, is real victory” (J. B. Chapman).

O Master, let me walk with Thee In lowly paths of service free; Tell me Thy secret, help me bear The strain of toil, the fret of care.

— Washington Gladden