Owen: getting the whole blessing

Wednesday, May 21, 2014
    Feast of Commemoration of Helena, Protector of the Faith, 330
Meditation:
    Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.”
    But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”
    The man asked him, “What is your name?”
    “Jacob,” he answered.
    Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome.”
    Jacob said, “Please tell me your name.”
    But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he blessed him there.
    So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.”
    —Genesis 32:26-30 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Whoever hath an interest in any one promise hath an interest in them all, and in the fountain-love from whence they flow. He to whom any drop of their sweetness floweth may follow it up into the spring. Were we wise, each taste of mercy would lead us to the ocean of love. Have we any hold on a promise?—we may get upon it, and it will bring us to the main, Christ Himself and the Spirit, and so into the bosom of the Father. It is our folly to abide upon a little, which is given us merely to make us press for more.
    ... John Owen (1616-1683), The Doctrine of the Saints’ Perseverance Explained and Confirmed [1654], in Works of John Owen, v. XI, London: Johnson & Hunter, 1853, ch. V, p. 223 (see the book)
    See also Gen. 32:26-30; Zech. 14:8; Ps. 46:4; Isa. 35:6; Matt. 5:6; John 4:10,13-14; 7:38-39; 14:16-17,26; Gal. 4:6; Rev. 7:17; 22:1-2
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You refresh Your people with living water. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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