Measured by God's Scale

 TEKEL: You have been weighed in the balances, and found wanting. Daniel 5:27

Here is a scale where being found lacking is a grave matter. When I step on a physical scale and see a low number, I feel happy. However, on God's scale, falling short is a serious matter.

The spiritual scale is the Word of God, I must weigh my spiritual condition every day and turn to the Lord in case of a shortcoming.

Spurgeon's meditation on this subject is very impressive, in which he gives wonderful advice.

"It is well, to frequently weigh ourselves in the scale of God's Word. You will find it a holy exercise, to read some psalm of David, and, as you meditate upon each verse, to ask yourself, "Can I say this? Have I felt as David felt? Has my heart ever been broken on account of sin—as his was when he penned his penitential psalms? Has my soul been full of true confidence in the hour of difficulty—as his was when he sang of God's mercies in the cave of Adullam, or in the strongholds of Engedi? Do I take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord?"

Then turn to the life of Christ, and as you read, ask yourselves how far you are conformed to His likeness. Endeavor to discover whether you have the meekness, the humility, the lovely spirit which He constantly inculcated and displayed.

Take, then, the epistles, and see whether you can go with the apostle in what he said of his experience. Have you ever cried out as he did, "O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death"? Have you ever felt his self-abasement? Have you seemed to yourself the chief of sinners, and less than the least of all saints? Have you known anything of his devotion? Could you join with him and say, "For me to live is Christ—and to die is gain"?

If we thus read God's Word as a test of our spiritual condition, we shall have good reason to stop many a time and say, "Lord, I feel I have never yet been here, O bring me here! give me true penitence, such as this I read of. Give me real faith; give me warmer zeal; inflame me with more fervent love; grant me the grace of meekness; make me more like Jesus. Let me no longer be 'found lacking,' when weighed in the balances of the sanctuary, lest I be found lacking in the scales of judgment." "Judge yourselves—that you be not judged."

This is a powerful meditation and provides the right counsel for self-examination.

May I never see TEKEL on God's scale.

From my diary,

December 2, 2024