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Morning and Evening

August 23, Evening

C. H. Spurgeon · Modern retelling

"That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith." — Ephesians 3:17 · KJV

It is beyond measure desirable that we, as believers, keep the person of Jesus constantly before us, to inflame our love for Him and increase our knowledge of Him. I wish all my readers were enrolled as diligent scholars in Jesus' college, students of the body of Christ, resolved to attain a good degree in the learning of the cross. But to have Jesus ever near, the heart must be full of Him, welling up with His love to overflowing; hence the apostle prays "that Christ may dwell in your hearts." See how near he would have Jesus to be! You cannot get a thing closer to you than to have it in the heart itself. "That He may dwell" — not that He may call on you now and then, as a casual visitor enters a house and stays a night, but that He may dwell, that Jesus may become the Lord and Tenant of your inmost being, never more to go out. Note the words: that He may dwell in your heart, that best room in the house of manhood; not in your thoughts alone, but in your affections; not merely in the mind's meditations, but in the heart's emotions. We should long for a love to Christ of the most abiding kind — not a love that flames up and then dies into a few embers, but a steady flame, fed by sacred fuel, like the fire on the altar that never went out. This cannot be done except by faith. Faith must be strong, or love will not be fervent; the root of the flower must be healthy, or we cannot expect the bloom to be sweet. Faith is the lily's root, and love its bloom. Now, reader, Jesus cannot be in your heart's love unless you have a firm hold of Him by your heart's faith; so pray that you may always trust Christ, in order that you may always love Him. If love is cold, be sure that faith is drooping.