Spurgeon was taking a deeper look at "the iniquities of the holy things" from Exodus 28:38. In this particular devotional passage he quoted a letter written by Dr. Payson who was writing to his brother who said, "My parish, as well as my heart, very much resembles the garden of the sluggard. What is worse is that I find many of the desires for the imporvement of both either proceed from pride, vanity, or laziness. I look at the weeds that overspread my garden and breathe out an earnest wish that they were eradicated. But why? What prompts the wish? It may be that I may walk out and say to myself, 'In what fine order is my garden kept!' This is pride. Or it may be that my neighbors may look over the wall and say 'How finely your garden flourishes!' This is vanity. Or I may wish for the destruction of the weeds because I am weary of pulling them up. This is laziness." Spurgeon went on to explain, "Even our desires after holiness may be polluted by wrong motives."
Isn't that something to think about?! As humans even our desire to be sanctified can be cause by our own selfish-ness. I feel like we can make anything selfish... Isn't that wonderful? Not really, if you're trying to daily deny your self and seek Christ. It's interesting to realize that our desire to walk as Jesus did and to become more holy can be caused by alterior motives. Spurgeon, however, ended on a very positive note leading all things back to Jesus. He wrote, "...While Jesus bears our sin, He presents before His Father's face not our lack of holiness, but His own holiness."
Praise the Lord for that!
After Jesus's sacrifice God looks at us through the lense of the cross. No matter what our motives be, though God desires our motives to be pure, if we are covered in the blood of Jesus, God doesn't see how unholy we are but He sees Christ's holiness when He looks at us! :) That's a great thing to rejoice about!
I thought it was an interesting thing to think about because sometimes I can be so ignorant of my motives. We like to think that the most important thing is doing what God has called us to do no matter if we do it willingly, gladly, or begrudgingly. However, again, God looks right to our heart!
Two days ago the devotional for the evening went along perfectly with God's desire for our hearts to be right and it was so good and convicting that I wanted to share it as well! The verse for the day was "Serve the LORD with gladness" - Psalm 100:2 and Charles Spurgeon wrote:
"Delight in the divine service is a token of acceptance. Those who serve God with a sad countenance, because they do what is unpleasent to them, are not serving Him at all; they bring the form of homage, but the life is absent. Our God requires no slaves to grace His throne. He is the Lord of the empire of love, and He would have His servants dressed in the uniform of joy. The angels of God serve Him with songs, not with groans. A murmur or a sigh would be mutiny in their ranks. Obedience that is not voluntary is disobedience for the Lord looks at the heart, and if He sees that we serve Him from force, and not because we love Him, He will reject our offering. Service coupled with cheerfulness is heart-service and, therefore, true. Take away joyful willingness from the Christian, and you have removed the test of his sincerity. If a man is driven to battle, he is not a patriot; but he who marches into the fray with flashing eye and beaming face, singing, 'It is sweet to die for one's country," proves himself to be sincere in his patriotism. Cheerfulness is the support of our strength; in the joy of the Lord we are strong. It acts as the remover of difficulties... Reader, let me put this question to you: Do you "serve the LORD with gladness"? Let us show the people of the world, who think our religion is slavery, that to us it is a delight and a joy! Let our gladness proclaim that we serve a good Master."
Isn't that amazing and convicting all at the same time?! I can think of so many times where I am being obedient to the Lord but my heart is not right. I do it by force because I have to and not because I want to. But this isn't what God wants. It's interesting that Spurgeon said that if we do it by force then we prove ourselves to be slaves to grace but that God will have no slaves; and if we do it by force we aren't doing it because we love Him and therefore it will be rejected. That is super convicting. This has encouraged me to definitely have the Lord search my heart as I am daily serving Him.
I loved how Spurgeon ended by saying that through our joyful willingness the world will see that our religion is not slavery! That is so awesome! If we are obedient to God with gladness and joy then no one can say that we are slaves because we are enjoying the service we do for the Lord!! :)
(Via)
No comments:
Post a Comment