Wesley: virtue leads to pride

Sunday, February 15, 2026
    Commemoration of Thomas Bray, Priest, Founder of SPCK, 1730
Meditation:
    It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.
    —Mark 10:25 (KJV)
Quotation:
    Wherever riches have increased, the essence of religion has decreased in the same proportion. Therefore I do not see how it is possible in the nature of things for any revival of religion to continue long. For religion must necessarily produce both industry and frugality, and these cannot but produce riches. But as riches increase, so will pride, anger, and love of the world in all its branches.
    How then is it possible that Methodism, that is, a religion of the heart, though it flourishes now as the green bay tree, should continue in this state? For the Methodists in every place grow diligent and frugal: consequently, they increase in goods. Hence, they proportionately increase in pride, in anger, in the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, and the pride of life. So, although the form of religion remains, the spirit is swiftly vanishing away.
    Is there no way to prevent ... this continual decay o f pure religion?
    ... John Wesley (1703-1791), The Works of the Rev. John Wesley, v. X, New York: J. & J. Harper, 1827, p. 150 (see the book)
    See also Mark 10:25; Judg. 21:25; Eccl. 5:10; Matt. 6:21
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, keep me from pride. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Campbell: Lordship

Saturday, February 14, 2026
    Feast of Cyril & Methodius, Missionaries to the Slavs, 869 & 885
    Commemoration of Valentine, Martyr at Rome, c.269
Meditation:
    Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”
    Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
    —John 20:28-29 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Looking into my heart, which is perhaps the best way of looking into other men’s, I know that the Savior I want is one of whom I can say with Thomas of old, “My Lord and my God.” It would not suffice for my need that He should be only an heroic brother, man divinely inspired. I owe Him my soul, He fills my whole spiritual horizon, I seek to lose myself in Him that I may find myself eternally in life and love divine.
    ... R. J. Campbell (1867-1956), The Call of Christ, London: Skeffington & Son, n.d. (before 1932) (see the book)
    See also John 20:28-29; Matt. 16:24-25; Rev. 19:9-10
Quiet time reflection:
    Live in me, Lord. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Dougall: pleasing God

Friday, February 13, 2026
Meditation:
    Blessed is the man
        who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked
        or stand in the way of sinners
        or sit in the seat of mockers.
    But his delight is in the law of the LORD,
        and on his law he meditates day and night.
    He is like a tree planted by streams of water,
        which yields its fruit in season
        and whose leaf does not wither.
    Whatever he does prospers.
    —Psalm 1:1-3 (NIV)
Quotation:
    We, and all things, exist in God’s infinitude now; our individuality battens within it; our personality grows strong because of it; and we know, if we know anything, that while the more we approach the good the more we please God, at the same time the more men approach the good the more nobly distinctive, the more beautifully individual, do their characters become.
    ... Lily Dougall (1858-1923), The Undiscovered Country, in Immortality: an essay in discovery, co-ordinating scientific, psychical, and Biblical research, Burnett Hillman Streeter, Arthur Clutton-Brock, Cyril William Emmet, James Arthur Hadfield, & Lily Dougall, Macmillan, 1917, p. 370 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 1:1-3; Acts 17:24-31; Rom. 12:1-2; 14:17-18; Eph. 2:10; Heb. 13:20-21
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, lead me always to the good. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Brother Lawrence: dealing with our sins

Thursday, February 12, 2026
    Commemoration of Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection (Nicolas Herman), spiritual writer, 1691
Meditation:
    ... let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
    —Isaiah 55:7 (ESV)
Quotation:
    [He said:] That all possible kinds of mortification, if they were void of the love of God, could not efface a single sin. That we ought, without anxiety, to expect the pardon of our sins from the blood of Jesus Christ, only endeavoring to love Him with all our hearts. That GOD seemed to have granted the greatest favors to the greatest sinners, as more signal monuments of His mercy.
    ... Brother Lawrence (c.1605-1691), The Practice of the Presence of God, New York, Revell, 1895, Second Conversation, p. 12-13 (see the book)
    See also Isa. 55:7; Matt. 10:37-38; Luke 7:41-47; John 21:15-17; Gal. 5:6; 1 Tim. 1:15; 1 John 4:19
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I rely on Your mercy more than ever. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Law: knowing sin and weakness

Wednesday, February 11, 2026
Meditation:
    The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
    —Psalm 51:17 (NIV)
Quotation:
    [Continued from yesterday]
    Our hearts deceive us, because we leave them to themselves, are absent from them, taken up in outward things, in outward rules and forms of living and praying. But this kind of praying, which takes all its thoughts and words only from the state of our hearts, makes it impossible for us to be strangers to ourselves. The strength of every sin, the power of every evil temper, the most secret workings of our hearts, the weakness of any or all our virtues, is with a noonday clearness forced to be seen, as soon as the heart is made our prayer-book, and we pray nothing, but according to what we read, and find there.
    ... William Law (1686-1761), The Spirit of Prayer [1749], London: E. Justins for Ogles, Duncan, and Cochran, 1816, p. 162 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 51:17; Eph. 1:18-19; 1 Thess. 5:17
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You will not turn away from a prayer from my heart. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Law: delivery from deceitfulness

Tuesday, February 10, 2026
    Commemoration of Scholastica, Abbess of Plombariola, c.543
Meditation:
    Hear, O LORD, my righteous plea; listen to my cry. Give ear to my prayer—it does not rise from deceitful lips.
    —Psalm 17:1 (NIV)
Quotation:
    [Continued from yesterday]
    For your heart is your life, and your life can only be altered by that which is the real working of your heart. And if your prayer is only a form of words, made by the skill of other people, such a prayer can no more change you into a good man, than an actor upon the stage, who speaks kingly language, is thereby made to be a king: whereas one thought, or word, or look, towards God, proceeding from your own heart, can never be without its proper fruit, or fail of being a real good to your soul. Again, another great and infallible benefit of this kind of prayer is this; it is the only way to be delivered from the deceitfulness of your own hearts. [Continued tomorrow]
    ... William Law (1686-1761), The Spirit of Prayer [1749], London: E. Justins for Ogles, Duncan, and Cochran, 1816, p. 161-162 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 17:1; Jer. 17:9; Eph. 4:22; 1 John 5:14
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, my prayer is my own, seeking You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Law: prayer from the heart

Monday, February 9, 2026
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.”
    —Matthew 7:7-8 (NIV)
Quotation:
    [Continued from yesterday]
    No vice can harbor in you, no infirmity take any root, no good desire can languish, when once your heart is in this method of prayer; never beginning to pray, till you first see how matters stand with you; asking your heart what it wants, and having nothing in your prayers, but what the known state of your heart puts you upon demanding, saying, or offering, unto God. A quarter of an hour of this prayer, brings you out of your closet a new man; your heart feels the good of it; and every return of such a prayer, gives new life and growth to all your virtues, with more certainty, than the dew refreshes the herbs of the field: whereas, overlooking this true prayer of your own heart, and only at certain times taking a prayer that you find in a book, you have nothing to wonder at, if you are every day praying, and yet every day sinking farther and farther under all your infirmities. [Continued tomorrow]
    ... William Law (1686-1761), The Spirit of Prayer [1749], London: E. Justins for Ogles, Duncan, and Cochran, 1816, p. 161 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 7:7-8; Eph. 2:18; Heb. 10:19-22; 1 John 3:21-22
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I seek You, for I am broken. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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