31. The Bible Method of Daily Living based on lectures by Matthew Henry - James R. Boyd, D.D.

-a cultivation of piety
-Mr. Henry's own practice was a constant effort to 'begin and spend and conclude each day with God." Besides the full and deliberate worship of God in his family, he abounded in secret prayer. It was his recourse in every undertaking.
-"What incomes of grace," he wrote, "yea, and outward good things, as far as they are indeed good for us, have we by an access to God in Christ! Such have a companion ready in all their solitudes, a counselor in all their doubts, a comforter in all their sorrow, a supply in all their wants, a support under all their burdens, a shelter in all their dangers, strength for all their performances, and salvation insured by a sweet, undeceiving earnest. What is heaven but an everlasting access to God? And present access is a pledge of it." p.12-13

I. HOW TO BEGIN THE DAY WITH GOD
-"It should be our purpose, also, daily to approach our God in prayer and in praise." p.23
"We have, or ought to have, something to say to God every day."
Ps 55:17, Ps 119:164, Heb 11:6,

"New every morning is the love
Our wakening and uprising prove;
Through sleep and darkness safely brought,
Restored to life, and power, and thought.

New mercies each returning day
Hover around us while we pray;
New perils past, new sins forgiven,
New thoughts of God, new hopes of heaven.

Only, O Lord, in thy dear love,
Fit us for perfect rest above,
And keep us this and every day,
To live more nearly as we pray." -Keble

II. HOW TO SPEND THE DAY WITH GOD
Ps 25:5
"The devout believer waits on Him as the beggar waits on his benefactor, with earnest desires to obtain needful supplies, or as the diseased at the pool of Bethesda waited for the stirring of the water and for the expected cure." Ps 63:1 (p.42)
"...during and throughout the day we are to wait upon Him."
= to live a life of delight in God Ps 116:7, Ps 62:5
= to live a life of devotion to Him
"The will of God, therefore, is to be our rule of action every day." p.45

III. HOW TO CLOSE THE DAY WITH GOD
-I will lie down and sleep in peace, for you alone O LORD make me dwell in safety. Ps 4:8
-To compose ourselves to sleep: "The love of sleep for the sake of sleep is the characteristic of the sluggard, but as the divinely-appointed means of recruiting our physical energies--quite as needful as food--we are to employ it with thankfulness to Him who 'gives His beloved sleep.'" p. 83

"When each day's scenes and labours close,
And wearied nature seeks repose,
With pardoning mercy richly blest,
Guard me, my Saviour, while I rest!
And as each morning sun shall rise,
Oh, lead me onward to the skies!

And at my life's last setting sun,
My conflicts o'er, my labours done,
Jesus! thy heavenly radiance shed,
To cheer and bless my dying bed,
And from death's gloom my spirit raise,
To see thy face and sing thy praise." - Sir R. Grant

Application:
we must live a life of communion with God...In order to do this, we must have in our hearts a principle of grace, which, like a well of living water, may be continually springing up to life eternal (Jn 4:14)

20-25 September 2017
Colorado Springs: NavPress, 1998