WE may enjoy the sunshine and the scent of the flowers in common, but our particular sense of these good things is our own individual experience. In like manner the favor of divine love and the excellent things of His grace are the common portion of all God's people, but none the less is the individual believer's experience of these things peculiar to himself. Our experiences are our own, and very important is the matter of our experience. Some seem to know but little of the sunshine, while others are filled with joy unspeakable and full of glory. Is it that some live more in the sunshine than do others?
We are sure that most Christians desire to be in the sunshine, and we cannot deny that we often fail to be there through our own want of spirituality. Yet some fail to be there because they dwell so much in their own homes, as it were—in their own thoughts about themselves—their own poverty. Like Mephibosheth, whose good the king sought, they dwell in Lo-debar, the place of no pasture. Like him, too, they are infirm and feeble, for Mephibosheth was lame on both his feet. But the king exalted him: David brought Mephibosheth up out of Lo-debar, and gave him a place at his table, and there, in the palace and wealth of the king, he, who was still lame on both his feet, found abundance. The abundance was that of the king, the wealth that of the king, and, though still feeble and infirm in himself; the abundance and the wealth Mephibosheth experienced.
Speaking spiritually, the lameness and feebleness of the believer are no detriment to his enjoyment of the blessings of the Lord. The poorest child is welcome to the sunshine, and the Lord loves to bring up His Mephibosheths from their Lo-debars, and to fully satisfy their hearts, so that they can but say, each one, "My cup runneth over."
Hearing about the sunshine and being in it are not the same thing; but the hearing leads to seeking, and the seeking to dwelling. We rind far more than our hearts can conceive in the Scriptures, there the heart of God and of Christ are opened up to us. Let us take one short text upon dwelling-" God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him." (1 John 4:1616And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. (1 John 4:16).) Here is indeed a home for a Mephibosheth—the love of God! And this we know as its wonders are revealed to us in the Scriptures. Our experience does not construct the home, we dwell in the love. What does our Lord say of God the Father's love? “I have declared unto them Thy Name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith Thou hast loved Me may be in them, and I in them." (John 17:2626And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them. (John 17:26).) Surely we can but witness that such realization of this most gracious truth can be experienced only when we are seated, as it were, at the king's table. “Thou hast loved them, as Thou hast loved Me" (ver. 23), we again hear Him say.
As in nature there are things in which we can delight, but which we could not fully explain, so it is in the things of the kingdom of God. “Thou hast loved them, as Thou hast loved Me," is beyond our comprehension, but we can believe and rejoice. We experience the charm of the sunshine, though we can but little explain what sunshine is; nay, who can accurately say what the sun is? And who shall say who God is? God is love, God is light, and the Father loves us even as He loves His Son! We rejoice in this His love. His love is infinite; we cannot explain it.
There can be no doubt that the happiest Christian experience arises from dwelling in the love, or, to use another figure, from feasting our souls when at the King's table, and we may obtain a happy suggestion from these words, "So Mephibosheth dwelt in Jerusalem: for he did eat continually at the king's table; and was lame on both his feet." (2 Sam. 9:1313So Mephibosheth dwelt in Jerusalem: for he did eat continually at the king's table; and was lame on both his feet. (2 Samuel 9:13).) His home was in David's home—his constant repast was where David himself ate—yet for all that Mephibosheth was still in himself the weak man he had been from his infancy.
So long as the Christian preserves his true humility it shall be well with him. True humility questions not the Lord's love to us, and His grace in exalting us, neither does true humility assume of ourselves that we are in and of ourselves other than what we ever were.
We may safely assert that no experience we may have which does other than make us the more exalt Christ, is one which we should desire. Even the apostle was afflicted with a thorn in the flesh after having seen and heard those unspeakable things he was given to realize in glory, for having seen those great things there was the danger, even in him, lest he should be exalted above measure! It seems, at first sight, strange that such things could possibly be used for self-exaltation, but the Lord Jesus Christ, who knows our hearts perfectly, withdrew His servant from the danger of self-exaltation by the thorn in the flesh, so that he might sustain himself in His grace—" My grace is sufficient for thee."