From J. C. Philpot's Daily Portions

May 23

O my people, trust in him at all times. Pour out your heart to him, for God is our refuge. Psalm 62:8

Have we not sometimes been enabled to pour out our hearts at a throne of grace, and tell the Lord what we really needed, what we really asked for, and tell him that nothing but that which he alone could give would satisfy our souls? There have been such times of access to the God of grace. And afterwards perhaps we have forgotten the things we told him of; we have been heedless of the prayers we laid at his feet; and though very earnest at the time in seeking after certain blessings, we left them at the Lord's feet and forgot them all.

But the Lord does not forget them; they are treasured up in his heart and memory; and in his own time he brings them to light, and gives the fulfillment of them. But before he does it, he will bring us into the spot where we need them again; and then we have to tell him, and supplicate and ask him again, ashamed of ourselves perhaps that we should have asked the Lord for these blessings and been as heedless of them as though we did not care to receive them at his hand; but still, under trouble, under soul necessity, under grief, we go and tell him again. And then the Lord, in his own time and way, brings about the very things we desired of him; opens up ways, lifts out of trials, removes burdens, makes a way in the deep, which no eye but his could see, and no hand but his could open--leads the soul into it, brings the soul through it--and then hides all glory from the creature, by making us fall down before his feet, and ascribe glory and honor and power and thanksgiving and salvation unto God and the Lamb.

Devotion for May 23