“The coming of the Lord draweth nigh” (James 5:88Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. (James 5:8)), and one of the greatest proofs of this is the general lukewarm state among believers — lukewarmness to Christ Himself, manifested in so many ways. Most “seek their own, not the things of Jesus Christ,” that is, He has not His proper place in our hearts. Our own things are taking His place. These things may not be wrong in themselves, yet the heart is unduly occupied with them, and the Lord Jesus as the object to live for and serve is lost. We slip away from His presence, and the soul is, perhaps unconsciously, at a distance from Him. Spiritual discernment is dimmed, and spiritual power almost gone.
Allow me, then, dear brethren, to urge upon you, and upon myself too, the truth that “we are not our own,” but “bought with a price.” And what a price! He gave Himself for us! Himself! We are not left down here merely to live decent, moral and respectable lives, attend to our business and families, and try to get on in the world till the Lord comes. We are here to live unto Him, in our families and businesses, as witnesses for Him, and in some little way to serve one another and souls around us, presenting our bodies a living sacrifice unto God. It should be an all-day, everyday sacrifice unto Him — our reasonable service, not being “conformed to this world: but ... transformed by the renewing of your mind.”
How are we thus to have Christ as an object for our hearts, as He ought to be? It is in seeing that we are an object to His heart — that His heart is always thinking of and caring for us. It is as true of Him as it is of us that where His treasure is, there His heart is also. Oh, to take it in more! Let us ask God to enable our poor, dull hearts to take in Christ’s great, wonderful and unceasing love to us, as really His treasure, and we shall find Him becoming an object to our hearts. This is what draws out spiritual affection towards Him, to whom we owe so much.
Do not let anything take you from the written Word of God. If you have little time for reading and find yourself reading periodicals or ministry and not your Bible, rather read your Bible. Always read the Word of God with the periodicals; honor God’s Word first. I am more and more persuaded of the importance of searching God’s own pure Word for one’s self, though thankful for and not despising any written ministry. And if in our reading we get any light or help or stirring up or have things brought to our remembrance, let us pray God to enable us to live out what we get from Him, that He may be glorified and our own souls really and truly blessed during the “little while” that we may still be left in this scene.
J. B. Dunlop, from an address