Meditations: January 2026

When Jesus slept in the stern,
Slumbering as the wind and waves rose,
Unwaking as water filled the boat,
Was it because he discerned his father’s footsteps in the storm?
Was he pondering his work
And dreaming of his mighty deeds?
“When the waters saw you, my Father,
When the waters saw you they were afraid
And the deeps trembled.
The clouds poured out water—
The skies gave forth thunder—
Your arrows flashed on every side—
The crash of your thunder was in the whirlwind—
Your lightnings lighted up the world—
The earth trembled and shook.
Your way was through the sea,
Your path through the great waters,
Yet your footprints were unseen:
You led your people like a flock
By the hand of the Son of Man.”

(Mark 4:35-41; Ps 77:12, 16-20)

This and the below have been my meditations for the past month. There are fewer this month; I’ve had to learn again to focus on the more profitable than the less. But what profit still the Lord blesses me with.

When I try to confess sin, I want to love it;
When I try to love your law, I want to break it—
Not me, but sin that dwells in me.
Deliver me from the body of this death.

(Rom 7)

“I have no comfort to give you. God has given you all possible comfort. All I can do is to try to help you to take it.”

—Maltbie Davenport Babcock (via Tim Challies)

No morning is new to you;
You knew them all before you dawned a single one.
No mercy is new to you;
If the Lamb was slain from the foundation of the world,
Then my atonement was accomplished as soon as it was eternally conceived in your covenant of redemption.
No morning is new to you, nor any mercy,
But your mercies are new every morning—
To me. Great is your faithfulness.

(Lam 3:23)

Then the Man said,
This at last! is bone of my bones
And flesh of my flesh;
She shall be called Christian,
Because she was taken out of Christ.

(Gen 2:23; Eph 5:31-32)