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A family Is of Great Value

Cover of Moody’s Thoughts for the Quiet Hour

Today's Devotional

What a humble, what a modest sphere for the exercise of faith! One would have said that the purpose was quite disproportionate to the work. The ark was a great undertaking, but what was it undertaken for? To save his own family. Is so narrow a sphere worthy to be the object of faith? Is so commonplace a scene as the life of the family circle fit to be a temple for the service of God? *hellip; My soul, when you have finished your prayers and ended your meditations, do not say that you have left the house of God. God’s house shall to you be everywhere, and your own house shall be a part of it. You shall feel that all the duties of this place are consecrated; that it is none other than the house of God and one of the gates to heaven. You shall feel that every one of its duties is an act of high communion. Therefore be it your [task] to make your house his house. Be it your [task] to consecrate each word and look and deed in the social life of home. Be it your [task] to build your ark of refuge for the wants of common day; truly your labor of love shall be called an act of faith.

About the author and the source

George Matheson (1842–1906) was a blind minister in Edinburgh and author of the well-known hymn “O Love that Wilt Not Let Me Go.” To today’s devotional we would only add that Matheson seems to have overlooked that Noah also saved the animals, but this does not detract from his point on the importance of saving one’s family.

George Matheson in Thoughts for the Quiet Hour, edited by D. L. Moody.

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