Spurgeon: August PM
* 08/23/PM
"That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith."
--Ephesians 3:17
Beyond measure it is desirable that we, as believers, should
have the person of Jesus constantly before us, to inflame our
love towards Him, and to increase our knowledge of Him. I would
to God that my readers were all entered as diligent scholars in
Jesus' college, students of Corpus Christi, or the body of
Christ, resolved to attain unto a good degree in the learning of
the cross. But to have Jesus ever near, the heart must be full
of Him, welling up with His love, even to overrunning; hence the
apostle prays "that Christ may dwell in your hearts ." See how
near he would have Jesus to be! You cannot get a subject closer
to you than to have it in the heart itself. " That He may
dwell "; not that He may call upon you sometimes, as a casual
visitor enters into a house and tarries for a night, but that He
may dwell ; that Jesus may become the Lord and Tenant of your
inmost being, never more to go out.
Observe the words--that He may dwell in your heart , that
best room of the house of manhood; not in your thoughts alone,
but in your affections; not merely in the mind's meditations,
but in the heart's emotions. We should pant after love to Christ
of a most abiding character, not a love that flames up and then
dies out into the darkness of a few embers, but a constant
flame, fed by sacred fuel, like the fire upon the altar which
never went out. This cannot be accomplished except by faith.
Faith must be strong, or love will not be fervent; the root of
the flower must be healthy, or we cannot expect the bloom to be
sweet. Faith is the lily's root, and love is the lily's bloom.
Now, reader, Jesus cannot be in your heart's love except you
have a firm hold of Him by your heart's faith; and, therefore,
pray that you may always trust Christ in order that you may
always love Him. If love be cold, be sure that faith is
drooping.