Ithaca Devotions

Wednesday March 18, 2026

Close your eyes for a moment to the scenes of misery and woe, degradation and sorrow that yet prevail on account of sin, and picture before your mental vision the glory of the perfect earth. Not a stain of sin mars the harmony and peace of a perfect society; not a bitter thought, not an unkind look or word; love, welling up from every heart, meets a kindred response in every other heart, and benevolence marks every act. There sickness shall be no more; not an ache nor a pain, nor any evidence of decay – not even the fear of such things. Think of all the pictures of comparative health and beauty of human form and feature that you have ever seen, and know that perfect humanity will be of still surpassing loveliness. The inward purity and mental and moral perfection will stamp and glorify every radiant countenance. Such will earth's society be; and weeping bereaved ones will have their tears all wiped away, when thus they realize the resurrection work complete. Rev. 21:4

Exceeding Great & Precious Promise

He hath said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. Heb. 13:5

Our highest interests...are matters of our Father's constant care. If we keep very near to the Lord, we are protected from the power of the fallen angels. ...Only a lack of faithfulness would subject us to their power to any extent so far as our New Creature interests are concerned. They can neither harm our bodies in any way nor cause any violence to us, unless the Lord permits it for our highest good – perhaps for our deliverance and exaltation, as in the case of our Master.... When...Pilate...said to our Lord on the night of His arrest and trial, "Knowest thou that I have the power to crucify thee, and have power to release thee?" Jesus answered: "Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above." So it is with all the footstep followers of the Master. God's grace will be sufficient. Man is powerless to harm a hair of our heads, unless it is permitted of our Father in heaven for His glory and our own highest welfare. R5540,c1,p2; c2,p3

Daily Heavenly Manna (March 18)

Gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 1:13

HAVING..."girded up the loins of your mind" for a long, steady and determined effort, "be sober"; do not allow yourself to become excited and, under the spur of excitement, to exhaust all your spiritual vitality in a very short time, and then to suffer a relapse into coldness or discouragement; but thoughtfully to consider and prepare for a long and patient endurance of all the discipline and trial of faith and patience necessary to prove an overcomer and worthy of the blessed reward promised "to him that overcometh." The race before us is not one to be run by fits and starts, but by "patient continuance in well doing." `Z.'03-54` R3149:3

Weekly Manna (March 12)

The end of the commandment is love from a pure heart, and a good conscience, and an undissembled faith. 1 Timothy 1:5 (Diaglott)

WE are therefore to have clearly before our minds the fact that the ultimate object of all the divine dealings for us and with us, and the ultimate significance of all the divine promises made to us, is the development of love, which is Godlikeness, for God is love. And to have this love developed in us, in the sense and to the degree intended by the Lord, it is necessary that it shall come from a pure heart, in full accord with the Lord, and His law of love, and wholly antagonistic to the Adversary and his law of selfishness. `Z.'00-360` R2735:1