Devotion
to God implies ardent affection for him—a yielding of
the heart to him with reverence, faith, and piety in every
act, particularly in prayer and meditation. We catch a
glimpse of the true meaning of devotion from what is said
of the centurion of the Italian band. He was termed a
devout man because he feared God, gave much alms to the
people, and prayed to God always (see Acts 10 :2). This is
the essence of true devotion. He loved God, without which
there can be no devotion. The more we love an object, the
more devoted to it we are. Devotion is therefore love
manifested. At the feet of Jesus stood a woman weeping and
washing his feet with her tears and wiping them with the
hairs of her head and kissing them. Is not this a picture
of devotion? It is love and devotion expressed in action.
Jesus said, "She loved much." The secret of
devotion is loving much.
Every devoted Christian desires to
be more devoted to his God. I am glad we can be. It is
pleasant to feel in our hearts an ardent desire to love
God more. A fond mother clasps her babe to her bosom. She
loves it, and her heart is happy in that love; but she
feels she can not love it enough. She longs to love it
more. Her heart yearns to love it more, though she loves
it from the fulness of her soul. This longing to love
increases our capacity to love. By being filled with air
some vessels are made to expand. Unless filled to their
utmost capacity, they would not become more extended. To
the extent that the heart is filled with the love of God,
man is happy.
To desire to be more devotional is
not an evidence of lack of devotion, but, on the contrary,
an evidence of devotion. Those who are the least
devotional have the least desire to be more devotional.
The heart that is fullest of love is happiest; and
although it is happy and satisfied, yet it longs to move.
Oh, how we long to clasp our arms more tightly about him!
how we long to have him clasp his arms more tightly about
us! how we long to nestle more fondly and lovingly on his
bosom! What rapture to our love flooded souls to receive
of his caresses and hear his tender words! To the soul in
the ecstasy of its heavenly love, the world with its
pleasures has vanished away like a morning vapor.
It is not understood by all how and
why we should have a desire to possess more of that of
which we are already full. It is the desire for
development, it is an innate desire; it is a principle
planted on our constitution under grace. Let me repeat
what I have said elsewhere: Every living thing consciously
or unconsciously struggles to conform to type. When the
little plant bursts through the ground, it enters the race
in conforming to the type that it carries in its bosom.
Thus in the heart of the acorn is a miniature oak tree.
The little chick carries within it an image of the mother
bird, to which it will naturally though unconsciously
conform.
In the natural world when things
reach the highest point of development, they begin to
decay or deteriorate; but this is not true in the
spiritual world. Never in this life and possibly never in
that life which is to come shall we reach the fullness of
the type, or, in other words. the highest point of
development. As the acorn or the little chick bears in its
nature an image of the parent, so the Christian bears in
his soul the image of God. This is the image to which he
is to conform. Day after day he can grow in grace. Day
after day the beautiful graces of the Spirit can become
more beautiful and the exterior life be more preceptibly
stamped with the holy image of God. There must be
progress, or there will be regress. When a ball that has
been thrown upward ceases to ascend, it begins to descend.
When the fullness of the type is reached, then begins the
retrogression. This is none the less true of spiritual
things. The reason why there need be no declension in love
is because the highest point of development is never
attained.
For illustration let us set a
little child in our midst. As a child it is perfect. All
organs are in proper place and are properly performing
their functions. It is a perfect image of the type of man
into which it will grow. That child's nature tends toward,
and the child longs to be a man. The child's innate desire
for development does not make it discontented as long as
its craving for growth is gratified. In this we behold the
goodness and the wisdom of the Creator. That the child may
be happy, it is so constituted that it satisfactorily
meets all the requirements of the law of development. The
child is thus kept in a state of contentment. Did it seek
to fulfill the law of growth contrary to its nature, to
become a man would be an irksome task. It is a delight to
the child to eat, to play, to sleep. And these things,
producing growth, meet the demands of its nature. There is
implanted in it both a desire to grow and a relish for the
things necessary to its growth. Thus the entire process of
development is a delight. In fact, there will be no
delight or enjoyment unless there be development.
True, a child does not eat and play
for the express purpose of growing. Indeed, it may take no
thought about growing. But there is in the nature of the
child, when in health, a demand for growth. When the child
is in ill health, the growth ceases; consequently there is
no demand for development, and it loses relish for the
things that go to meet that demand.
This very beautifully illustrates
Christian development which includes becoming more
devotional. You desire to be more devotional. Such a
desire is legitimate. The nature of every sanctified soul
craves development. The soul is not dissatisfied, any more
than the growing child. As that developing life in the
child moves it to seek for the things that produce
development, so the life of God in the sanctified soul
moves it to seek for the things that will unfold and
amplify that life. "If ye be risen [have life] with
Christ, seek those things which are above." Those
things, coming into our souls daily, will unfold us more
and more into an heavenly life. They are food to the
sanctified soul. They keep the soul satisfied, because
they are the means provided by a loving, all wise
Providence for the constant healthful growth of our
spiritual natures. Herein only is true soul-rest.
God gives us a relish for the very
things that go to fulfill the demands of our Christian
nature. Prayer, meditation, reading the Bible, trust, and
resting in the Lord promote increase in him. How
delightful is prayer to the soul that is healthful and
growing! and the Word of God is sweeter than honey. Where
there is a demand in the soul for these things, how
delightful it is to engage in them! Do you behold the
beauty and the wisdom here? God implants a desire in the
soul for spiritual development and at the same time
implants a relish for the things necessary for such
development. Bless his name! Understand me please, this
desire is not a restless longing, an aching void as is
found in an unregenerated heart or in a soul in spiritual
decline; but it is the delightful struggling of a soul
bearing the likeness of God, to conform to the natural law
of development pent up within its bosom.
What is it in the nature of the oak
that causes it to send its roots down into the soil and to
drink up of its substance? What is it in the nature of the
child that causes it so eagerly to eat and play? It is the
demand in their nature for growth, or that innate struggle
to conform to type. Manhood is sleeping in the child's
bosom, and it wrestles and struggles to rise to the
fullness of that image. What causes the Christian heart to
long to root deeper into God; that makes the soul seek his
embrace? It is that instinctive struggle to conform to
God's glorious image. The entire process of development is
delightful. Whenever the natural tendency toward growth
ceases, the soul is in an abnormal state, and loses relish
for the things necessary to growth.
Christian, see to it that you keep
in your heart a desire, a longing, a panting, or, if you
would rather I will say, a demand, in your spiritual being
to be more devotional to God, and meet that demand by
resting by faith in him, by prayer, by meditation, by
sacrifice. Do this, and you will become more devotional.
But I love the word "desire." Desire in the soul
for spiritual things is appetite. Satisfying this desire
is a pleasure. Never were any viands so sweet to the
physical sense of taste as that food to our soul which
helps us be more devotional. "Desire" is a Bible
term. "As new-born babes, desire the sincere milk of
the word, that ye may grow thereby."
One way of becoming more devotional
is by being active in service. Desire must be gratified,
or it will die. Likewise, motive must find expression in
action, or it will die. You have a desire for prayer; then
grant that desire by actually praying, or you will lose
the desire. An appetite once lost is difficult to regain.
You may have in your soul a pure motive; then carry it
into action. Do something for God, and you will become
more devotional to God. Not that devotion comes by works,
to begin with, any more than grace; but we do become more
devotional by doing, just as we grow stronger physically
by exercise. Follow every inclination to do good as far as
you can, and you will become more devotional to God.
God loves to have you devoted to
him, and he longs to have you more devoted. It is
astonishing, nevertheless God has intense desire to be
prayed to and great love for communion with our hearts. He
says, "My son, give me shine heart." What does
he want with man's heart? He wants to put his love in it,
so he can be loved by it and hold communion with it.
"The prayer of the upright is his delight." Oh,
that there are so few hearts that love God! Jesus wept
over Jerusalem because they would not come to him. But why
does he so intensely yearn for the prayers and devotions
of our hearts? Because it is another young life and
struggling to conform to the image in which it was
created. It is another soul which has been won for God and
in which he has his throne.
O God! take our hearts and compress
within them that pure love from thy own heart that will
cause us to pray, "O God! enlarge our hearts."
God would even pain our hearts with the fullness of his
love until we find no ease except in expansion.
