Matthew Henry - Grant Me Wisdom: Daily Devotions from the Works of Matthew Henry

2004 by Barbour Publishing, Inc.

Print ISBN 978-1-63609-310-9

Adobe Digital Edition (epub.) 978-1-63609-154-9

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All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Published by Barbour Publishing, Inc., 1810 Barbour Drive, Uhrichsville, Ohio 44683, www.barbourbooks.com

Our mission is to inspire the world with the life-changing message of the Bible.

Printed in the United States of America.

Many modern Christians have heard Matthew Henrys name. Some know he wrote a commentary on the Bible. But considerably fewer have actually read his work.

Matthew Henrys writings are certainly worth reading, though, and this book, Grant Me WisdomDaily Devotions from the Works of Matthew Henry, makes them readily accessible to the modern Christian. Carefully drawn from Henrys massive Commentary on the Whole Bible, this devotional book takes his most practical thoughts and puts them into a one-a-day format for a years worth of inspiring reading.

Though he lived three centuries ago, Matthew Henrys writings still speak to Christians seeking insight into the scriptures. For the modern readers benefit, Grant Me Wisdom features a light editing of Henrys original words and the use of the New King James Version of the Bible. Selections are categorized by monthly topics, including faith, prayer, Bible study, devotion and commitment, intimacy with God, worship, relationships, fruits of the Spirit, Christian duty, spiritual warfare, the Great Commission, and anticipating Christs return.

Whether youre already familiar with the work of Matthew Henry or this is your first exposure to this great Christian leader, we hope youll find challenge and encouragement from his writings.

T HE E DITORS

Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?unless indeed you are disqualified.

2 C ORINTHIANS 13:5

What the apostle Paul says here of the duty of the Corinthians to examine themselves is applicable to the great duty of all who call themselves Christians: to examine themselves concerning their spiritual state. We should examine whether we are in the faith, because it is a matter in which we may be easily deceived and where a deceit is highly dangerous. As with the goats in Jesus parable in Matthew 25, He shall say to them, Depart from Me, you cursed (v. 41). Every word has terror in it, like that of the trumpet at Mount Sinai, waxing louder and louder, every accent more and more doleful and exclusive of comfort. In this world they were often called to come to Christ, to come for life and rest, but they turned a deaf ear to His calls; justly, therefore, those who would not come to Him are bid to depart from Christ. It is the hell of hell to depart from Christ.

We are therefore concerned to prove our own selves, to put the question to our own souls, whether Christ is in us or not; and Christ is in us, unless we are reprobates: so that either we are true Christians or we are great cheats, and what a reproachful thing it is for a man not to know himself, not to know his own mind!

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good testimony.

H EBREWS 11:12

The grace of faith is the substance of things hoped for. Faith and hope go together, and the same things that are the object of our hope are the object of our faith. We are of a firm persuasion and expectation that God will perform all that He has promised to us in Christ. Believers in the exercise of faith are filled with unspeakable joy and full of glory. Faith is the evidence of things not seen. Faith demonstrates to the eye of the mind the reality of those things that cannot be discerned by the eye of the body. It is designed to serve the believer instead of sight and to be to the soul all that the senses are to the body.

True faith is an old grace and has the best plea to antiquity: It is not a new invention, a modern fancy. The eldest and best men who ever were in the world were believers. They were an honor to their faith, and their faith was an honor to them. It started them doing the things that were of good report.

But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

2 T IMOTHY 3:1415

As good men, by the grace of God, grow better and better, so bad men, through the subtlety of Satan and the power of their own corruptions, grow worse and worse. It is not enough to learn what is good, but we must continue in it and persevere in it until the end. If Timothy would adhere to the truth as he had been taught it, this would arm him against the snares and insinuations of seducers.

It is a great happiness to know the certainty of the things wherein we have been instructed. Consider who taught younot evil men and seducers, but good men who had themselves experienced the power of the truths they taught you. Knowing especially the firm foundation upon which you have built. That from a child you have known the Holy Scriptures.

Those who would acquaint themselves with the things of God must know the Holy Scriptures. It is a great happiness to know the Holy Scriptures from our childhood. The age of childhood is the learning age; and those who would get true learning must get it out of the Scriptures. They must not lie neglected and seldom or never looked into.

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.

E PHESIANS 2:89

There is no room for any mans boasting of his own abilities and power or as though he had done anything that might deserve such immense favors from God. God Himself is the author of this great and happy change. Love is His inclination to do us good, considered simply as creatures: Mercy respects us as apostate and miserable creatures. That love of God is great love, and that mercy of His is rich mercy. Every converted sinner is a saved sinner. The grace that saves them is the free, undeserved goodness and favor of God, and He saves them not by the works of the law, but through faith in Christ Jesus. Both that faith and that salvation are the gifts of God.