the Week of Proper 17 / Ordinary 22
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Daily Devotionals
Music For the Soul
TRIUMPHANT CONFIDENCE
I rejoice in the Lord greatly, that now at length ye have revived your thought of me. Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. - Philippians 4:10-11
I BELIEVE that one of the great secrets of the weakness of modern Christianity is that practically that doctrine -- no! do not let us call it a doctrine - that fact of the dwelling of the Christian soul in Christ, and the reciprocal indwelling of Christ, in every believing heart, has, to a large extent, faded out of popular conceptions of Christianity. We talk a great deal, and we cannot talk too much, but we may talk too exclusively, about Christ for us. We must regard that as the basis of all Christ’s work. But then the New Testament builds upon it this other truth - Christ in us and we in Christ. I would that Christian people realised more as a simple fact - mystical, if you like, and none the worse for that - that there is a union between the believing spirit and the Christ whom it trusts, so close and intimate as that local metaphors of mutual indwelling do but partially express it. As the branch is in the vine so are we in Christ. As the soul is in the body so is Christ in us; the Life of our lives, the Soul of our souls. And it is by union with Jesus Christ, and by this most deep and real dwelling in Him as the atmosphere, in which we "live and move and have our being," that the word ceases to be presumption and becomes humility; self-distrust and confidence in Him.
I wish sometimes that I could get Christian people to take the epistles, and read them through once, for one purpose, that is, to note the variety of applications in which that phrase " in Christ Jesus " occurs. If anybody would do that, he would get a new impression of the reality and of the prominence in the whole scheme of Christianity, of the thought - "in Him."
How is that indwelling to be realised? You perhaps say, "Oh! such a union with Christ is mystical; it is far away from our ordinary experience." Yes! I believe it is far away from ordinary experience. But there is no reason why it should be so. For, however profound the thought, the way of making it a fact in our lives is as plain as the thought is profound. You are in Him when you trust Him. You are not in Him if your confidence is in self, or in creatures. You are not in Him if all the day long your mind is busy with other thoughts, and your heart with other affections. But you are in Him if you are occupied, heart and mind, with Him and with His truth. You are in Him if, trusting Him, and having Him present by the direction of mind and heart towards Him, as the motive and power of your lives, you serve Him with lowly obedience. And you are not in Him if you assert your own independence, and perk yourself up in His face and say, " Not as Thou wilt, but as I will." Trust, meditation, practical obedience - these are the three angels that guide us into the very presence-chamber of the Most High.
'Music For The Soul' daily readings for a year from the writings of the Rev. Alexander Maclaren, D.D., selected and arranged by the Rev. Geo. Coates, published by A.C. Armstrong and Son, 51 East Tenth Street, (1897). The original text is in the Public Domain and this electronic version is free for anyone without cost or obligation. This a year long daily devotional was written by the Rev. Alexander Maclaren over 100 years ago. This Scottish pastor had a heart to follow Jesus and a love for souls.