“Are you content to follow Jesus from a distance? O, let me affectionately warn you for it is a grievous thing when we can live contentedly without the present enjoyment of the Savior’s face. Let us work to feel what an evil thing this is – little love to our own dying Savior, little joy in our precious Jesus, little fellowship with the Beloved!Hold a true Lent in your in your souls, while you sorrow over your hardness of heart. Don’t stop at sorrow. Remember where you first received salvation. Go at once to the cross. There, and there only can you get your spirit aroused. No matter how hard, how insensible, how dead we may have become, let’s go again in all the rags and poverty, and defilement of our natural condition.
Let’s clasp that cross, let’s look into those languid eyes, let’s bathe in that fountain filled with blood – this will bring us back to our first love; this will restore the simplicity of our faith, and the tenderness of our heart….The more we dwell where the cries of Calvary can be heard the more noble our lives become. Nothing puts life into men like a dying Savior.”
CHARLES H. SPURGEON
Most of us want an effortless experience, instant spirituality and immediate victory in Christ. We want to feel deeply, yet we don't want to think deeply or work hard.
Yet He has ordained that Christian growth & maturity; that spirit filled lives & relationship with God come as a result of actively practicing certian 'means of grace'.
Unhurried time in the Scriptures. Prayer & Fasting. Contemplation of the Cross of Calvary. Reading theologically informed books. Meditation on Scripture, (thinking deeply).
Yet He has ordained that Christian growth & maturity; that spirit filled lives & relationship with God come as a result of actively practicing certian 'means of grace'.
Some Suggested 'Means of Grace'
Fellowship with other Believers.
Without effort in these steps (& others) we will not feel deeply about Jesus, nor pursue passionately after the Saviour. Perhaps you're like me, seeing some of these & thinking I need God's gracious help to step further & more consistently in these areas. May He help us by His Spirit!
(*Much of this was taken from C.J. Mahaney's message 'Extravagant Devotion')
Without effort in these steps (& others) we will not feel deeply about Jesus, nor pursue passionately after the Saviour. Perhaps you're like me, seeing some of these & thinking I need God's gracious help to step further & more consistently in these areas. May He help us by His Spirit!
(*Much of this was taken from C.J. Mahaney's message 'Extravagant Devotion')
