Genesis 41:4

And the seven thin cows made a meal of the seven fat cows. Then Pharaoh came out of his sleep.

Pharaoh's dream has too often been my waking experience. My days of laziness have ruinously destroyed all that I achieved in times of zealous industry. My seasons of coldness have frozen all the genial glow of my periods of fervency and enthusiasm. My fits of worldliness have thrown me back from my advances in the divine life. I needed to be wary of lean prayers, lean praises, lean duties, and lean experiences, for these will eat up the fat of my spiritual comfort and peace. If I neglect prayer for even a short time, I lose all the spirituality which I have attained. If I draw no fresh supplies from heaven, the old corn in my granary is soon consumed by the famine which rages in my soul. When the maggots of indifference, the cockroaches of worldliness, and the fruit-flies of self-indulgence, lay my heart completely desolate, and make my soul to languish, all my former fruitfulness and growth in grace avails me nothing. How anxious I should be to have no lean-fleshed days, no ill-favoured hours! If every day I journey towards the goal of my desires I could soon reach it, but backsliding leaves me still far from the prize of my high calling, and robs me of the advances which I have so laboriously made. The only way in which all my days can be as the "fat cow," is to feed them in the right meadow, to spend them with the Lord, in His service, in His company, in His fear, and in His way. Why should not every year be richer than the past, in love, and usefulness, and joy? I am nearer the celestial hills, I have had more experience of my Lord, and should be more like Him. O Lord, keep far from me the curse of leanness of soul; let me not have to cry, "My leanness, my leanness, woe unto me!" but may I be well-fed and nourished in thy house, that I may praise thy name.