Ithaca Devotions

Thursday April 23, 2026

[1] Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. [2] And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing. [3] And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not love, it profiteth me nothing. [4] Love suffereth long, and is kind; love envieth not; love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, [5] Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; [6] Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; [7] Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. [8] Love never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. [9] For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. [10] But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. [11] When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. [12] For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. [13] And now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Exceeding Great & Precious Promise

The LORD thy God, He it is that doth go with thee; He will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. Deut. 31:6

It may yet be true of the Lord's people that things will look very dark; but they are not in despair, and will not be in despair whatever may come; for the Lord has said that He will never leave us nor forsake us. This gracious promise should give us a hope sure and steadfast. Our anchor of hope should hold. Our position, therefore, is very different from that of the world, who have no particular hope. The world have no solid anchor, no precious promises to hold them fast. We know that if the worst comes to the worst, if we should even die of starvation, our hope lies beyond the veil, beyond death. Therefore God's saints of today look upon death as the gateway by which to enter...into a realization of all our hopes and joys. R5671,c1,p3

Daily Heavenly Manna (April 23)

That on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the Word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience. Luke 8:15

EVERY one who will be a sacrificer must of necessity be meek, humble, teachable, else very shortly he will get out of the way. He must also learn to develop the grace of the Lord along the line of patience, because it certainly requires patience to deny ourselves and to submit at times to injustice where there is no proper means of avoiding it without doing injury to the Lord's cause or to some of His people. It also implies a cultivation of brotherly kindness and, in a word, the development of the whole will of God in our hearts and lives; namely, love, which must be attained in a large and overcoming measure ere we shall have completed our earthly work of sacrificing. `Z.'03-408` R3267:1

Weekly Manna (April 16)

They shall be Mine, saith the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up My jewels; and I will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. Malachi 3:17

HAD the Lord sent us forth to seek His Bride, we might have gathered in some whom He rejects as unworthy – because we are unable to read the heart. This thought should make us very humble, gentle and meek toward all, and very trustful of the Lord, and very much inclined to look for His leading in respect to our labors as His servants, just as Samuel looked to the Lord in connection with the anointing of David. `Z.'03-223` R3227:1