The Believer's Daily Renewal: A Devotional Classic

By Andrew Murray

Andrew Murray gently challenges Christians to be rooted and grounded in Christ by spending time with Him daily. The result will be "true godliness" in the life of the believer. If the morning begins as "holy to the Lord, the day with its duties will be so, too." Originally published in 1905 as The Inner Chamber and the Inner Life, this rich, faith-strengthening message is as vital today as it was a century ago.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
• Release date: Sep 1, 2004
• ISBN: 9781441261779

Andrew Murray

ANDREW MURRAY (1828-1917) was a church leader, evangelist, and missionary statesman. As a young man, Murray wanted to be a minister, but it was a career choice rather than an act of faith. Not until he had finished his general studies and begun his theological training in the Netherlands, did he experience a conversion of heart. Sixty years of ministry in the Dutch Reformed Church of South Africa, more than 200 books and tracts on Christian spirituality and ministry, extensive social work, and the founding of educational institutions were some of the outward signs of the inward grace that Murray experienced by continually casting himself on Christ. A few of his books include The True Vine, Absolute Surrender, The School of Obedience, Waiting on God, and The Prayer Life.

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Chapter 1

The Morning Hour

In the morning, O Lord, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation.

Psalm 5:3

The Sovereign Lord has given me an instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary. He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being taught.

Isaiah 50:4

From the earliest ages God’s servants have thought of the morning as the time especially suited for the worship of God. It is still regarded by most Christians both as a duty and a privilege to devote some portion of the beginning of the day to seeking seclusion and fellowship with God. Many Christians observe the Morning Watch; some speak of it as their Personal Devotions; others call it the Quiet Time. All these, whether they mean a whole hour, half an hour, or a quarter of an hour, unite with the psalmist in saying, In the morning, O Lord, you hear my voice.

In speaking of the extreme importance of this daily time of quiet prayer and meditation on God’s Word, someone has said: Next to receiving Christ as Savior and claiming the baptism of the Holy Spirit, we know of no act attended with larger good to ourselves or others than the formation of an indisputable resolution to keep the watch and spend the first half hour of the day alone with God. At first glance, the statement may appear too strong. The act of receiving Christ as our Savior is one of such infinite consequence for eternity, and the step of claiming the Holy Spirit is one that is so revolutionary in the Christian life, that such a simple thing as the determination to keep the morning watch hardly appears important enough to be placed alongside them.

If, however, we remember how impossible it is to daily live our life in Christ as our Savior from sin or to maintain a walk in the leading and power of the Holy Spirit without daily, close fellowship with God, we will see the truth of the statement. It simply reflects the determination that Christ shall have our whole life and that the Holy Spirit shall in everything be fully obeyed. The morning watch is the key to maintaining our surrender to Christ and to the Holy Spirit.

Let us look first at what should be the object of the morning watch. This time must not be regarded as an end in itself. The fact that it can be a blessed time for prayer and Bible study, providing a certain measure of refreshment and help, is not enough. It is rather a means to an end. And that end is to secure and maintain the presence of Christ for the whole day.

Personal devotion to a friend or a pursuit means that friend or pursuit will always hold a place in our heart, even when other engagements occupy our attention. Personal devotion to Jesus means that we allow nothing to separate us from Him for a moment. To abide in Him and His love, to be kept by Him and His grace, to be doing His will and pleasing Him, cannot possibly be an intermittent thing to one who is truly devoted to Him. I Need Thee Every Hour and Moment by Moment I Am Kept in His Love are hymns that speak the language of life and truth. In your name shall they rejoice all the day and I the Lord do keep it; I will water it every moment are words of divine power. The believer cannot stand for one moment without Christ. Personal devotion to Him refuses to be content with anything less than to abide always in His love and His will; the true scriptural Christian life is nothing less. This is the importance and blessedness, the true goal of the morning watch.

The clearer our objective is the better we shall be able to use the means of attaining it. Consider the morning hour now as the means to this great end: I want to secure the presence of Christ all day, to do nothing that would interfere with it. I feel that my success for the day will depend upon the clarity and the strength of my faith that seeks and finds Him in my quiet time. Meditation and prayer and reading the Word will always be subject to this; the link for the day between Christ and us must be renewed and confirmed in the morning hour.

At first it may appear that thoughts of the day ahead with all its cares, pleasures, and temptations may disturb the rest I have enjoyed during my devotional time. It is possible, but it will not be a loss. The true practice of Christianity strives toward having the character of Christ so formed in us that in our most common activities His temper and disposition will be displayed. The spirit and the will of Christ are meant to so indwell us that our interaction with others, our leisure and our work, will only prove His presence with us. All this is because Christ himself, the living One, lives in us. Do not be disturbed if the goal appears too high to attain or occupies too much of your time in the hour of private prayer. The time you give it will be richly rewarded. You will return to prayer and the Scripture with renewed purpose and faith. As your morning watch begins to have its effect on your day, fellowship with Christ will have new meaning and new power.

It will particularly have its influence on the spirit in which you keep the morning watch. As the grandeur of the aim (unbroken fellowship with God throughout the day) and the true nature of the means to secure it (a definite conscious meeting with Christ to know His presence for the day) possesses us, it will be clear that what is essential is wholehearted purpose—a determination, whatever effort or self—denial it may cost, to win the prize.

In study or on the athletic field, every student or athlete knows the need of a strong will and purpose if one is to succeed. Our faith needs and deserves not less but more intense devotion. If anything, surely the love of Christ requires the whole heart. It is this total determination, before everything else, to secure Christ’s presence that will overcome every temptation to be unfaithful or superficial in the keeping of our pledge. It will make the morning watch a means of grace for the strengthening of our character and for enabling us to say no to every temptation to self—indulgence. It will ensure that when we enter the inner chamber and shut the door, we will be there with our whole heart, ready for communion with Christ. This determination, from the morning watch on, will become the keynote of our daily life.

In the world it is often said, Great things are possible to the one who knows what he wants and wants it with all his heart. The student who has made a personal commitment to Christ will find in the morning hour the place where day by day the insight into his holy calling is renewed; where his will is strengthened to walk worthy of it; and his faith is rewarded by the presence of Christ, who waits to meet him and remain with him throughout the day. We are more than conquerors through Him who loves us. The living Christ waits to meet us.

Chapter 2

Alone With God

But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

Matthew 6:6

Humankind was created for fellowship with God. God made us in His own image and likeness that we might be capable of understanding and enjoying God, entering into His will and delighting in His glory. Because God is the Everywhere—Present and All—Pervading One, we could have lived in unbroken fellowship with Him in whatever work we had to do.

Sin robbed us of this fellowship. And nothing but this fellowship can satisfy the heart of either us or God. It was this that Christ came to restore; to bring back to God His lost creature, and bring us back to all we were created for. Intimacy with God is the consummation of blessedness on earth as it is in heaven. It comes when the promise—I will be with you; I will never leave you or forsake you—becomes a real experience; when we can say, The Father is always with me.

This communion with God is meant to be ours every day, whatever our state of mind or the circumstances that surround us. But its enjoyment depends upon the reality of our fellowship in the quiet place. The power to maintain close fellowship with God all day will depend entirely upon the intensity with which we seek to secure it in the hour of secret prayer. The one essential in the morning watch is fellowship with God.

Our Lord teaches that this is the secret of private prayer: Close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. The first objective is to see that you have the Father’s attention and presence. Know that He sees and hears you. Of more importance than all your effort to pray in the right way is this: that you have the childlike assurance that your Father sees you, and that as you look on Him, He looks on you, and you enjoy genuine communion with God.

But there is a real danger to which you are exposed in this quiet place. It is the danger of substituting prayer and Bible study for living fellowship with God. True fellowship is giving Him your love, your heart, and your life, and also receiving from Him His love, His life, and His Spirit. Your needs and your expression of them, your desire to pray in faith, humility, and sincerity may so distract you that the light of His countenance and the joy of His love cannot enfold you. Your Bible study