A Thought to encourage our devotion to Jesus

10 “But now I tell the people of Israel this is my new agreement: ‘The time will come when I, the Lord, will write my laws on their minds and hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 11 Not one of them will have to teach another to know me, their Lord.’ “All of them will know me, no matter who they are. Hebrews 8:10–11 (CEV)

Oh! marvellous mystery! we look into it, but who shall understand it? One with Jesus—so one with him that the branch is not more one with the vine than we are a part of the Lord, our Saviour, and our Redeemer! While we rejoice in this, let us remember that those who are made partakers of the divine nature will manifest their high and holy relationship in their intercourse with others, and make it evident by their daily walk and conversation that they have escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. O for more divine holiness of life!

I love reading some pastors and priests from generations past. It doesn’t have to be someone famous like Spurgeon, although there is a lot in his works.

They show a more natural awe of God’s work, a joy of being found in the presence of God that I would hope I transmit to my people, though there are days I doubt it. I wouldn’t call their work poetic, but there is an art in the way they used their words, a sense of language that envelops you in the thought. in reading it, the way in which they write has to be savored, you simply cannot rush through it.

In this care, the words explain a phenomenon that every revival is based upon, the unity, the communion we have with Christ! Being found welcome in the presence, not just tolerated, but that God wants us there! How incredible! How amazing!

It should be so amazing that this incredible relationship should be made manifest, it must be revealed as we relate to others, not a matter of force, not a matter of will, it just has to reveal itself !

That is what the love of God does, when we atually sit down and realize the Lord of the Universe, has done this, He has come to us, He has made us His people… we actually know Him. We intimately are known by Him, and He calls us His friends.

Think about that today… and rejoice, for the Lord is with you!

C. H. Spurgeon, Morning and Evening: Daily Readings (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1896).