THESE people of old were only potters, and those that dwelt among plants and hedges, and yet what a privilege was theirs! They dwelt with the King for His work, just in the place where God had put them—among plants and hedges—there they dwelt with the King for His work. And so, dear child of God, today, whatever sphere He has placed you in, it may be in the office or in the workshop, some mother in the household perhaps, or some servant in the kitchen, yet this may be your privilege also, there to dwell with the King for His work. Living in His presence as you fulfil the duties to which He has called you, enjoying sweet communion with the King in the midst of the rush of life’s busiest days.
But alas! how very little God’s children know of what it means
Day by Day, to Dwell With the King for His Work.
How little we know of a life spent in communion with Him: perhaps, like Absalom of old, of whom we read that he dwelt two full years in Jerusalem and saw not the king’s face (2 Sam. 14:2828So Absalom dwelt two full years in Jerusalem, and saw not the king's face. (2 Samuel 14:28)). So it may be true of us, that for days and weeks, yea, and even perhaps for years in some cases, we have not seen the face of our King.
There has been no communion with Him, no dwelling with Him for His work; some cloud has come in between our souls and Him, it may be some sin we are clinging to, or perhaps some idol cherished in our hearts, and the Master has been laying His finger upon it, and yet we have refused to part with that thing, whatever it may be: and so there has been no fellowship with Him, no dwelling with the King: life has been nothing but failure, and the heart of our God has been grieved, for He longs that we should enjoy this blessed privilege—
A Life Spent in Communion With the King,
a life of victory, a life of perfect rest and satisfaction.
It may be, dear child of God, as you read these words, that you long to know more of what it is, to dwell daily with the King for His work, but there is some hindrance in your life. Oh, will you not bow in the Master’s presence, and ask Him to search you right through and through? To discover to you what is wrong, and then to cleanse you by the power of His holy Word, until His pure and holy eye can see nothing unclean. Yea! ask Him to fill you with His own fulness, and keep you in close touch with Himself daily: so that, as you dwell in His presence, and gaze by faith upon Him, He may mould and fashion you, and make you more like Himself, so that your life may attract others to Him here below, until that day when His children “with gladness and rejoicing shall enter into the king’s palace” (Psa. 45:1515With gladness and rejoicing shall they be brought: they shall enter into the king's palace. (Psalm 45:15)): then faith shall be lost in sight, and we shall “see the King in His beauty” (Isa. 33:1717Thine eyes shall see the king in his beauty: they shall behold the land that is very far off. (Isaiah 33:17)). Till then may we indeed know more of what it means to
Dwell With the King for His Work.
In conclusion, perhaps, some may read these lines, and they know nothing whatever of this life of rest and joy, for as yet they are strangers to the King: they are still burdened with a load of sin, without God and without hope in the world, and if death were to take them away in their present condition, they would spent eternity in hell, shut out from the presence of the King for ever, for He says:— “If ye believe not that I am He, ye shall die in your sins” (John 8:2424I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins. (John 8:24)).
Dear unsaved one, will you not just now open that heart of thine and let the Lord Jesus—the King of Glory—in? How often He has knocked at your heart’s door in the past: and you have not hearkened: yet once again He says: “BEHOLD I STAND AT THE DOOR AND KNOCK, IF ANY MAN HEAR MY VOICE AND OPEN THE DOOR, I WILL COME IN TO HIM AND WILL SUP WITH HIM, AND HE WITH ME” (Rev. 3:2020Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. (Revelation 3:20)).
Delay, then, no longer, but
“Swing the Heart’s Door Widely Open,”
let Him come in and cleanse that heart of thine, and dwell therein Himself. He will fill your life with a joy and peace that you never knew before, and by-and-by you, too, shall “see the King in His beauty,” and join in the new song, “Unto Him that loved us and washed us from our sins in His precious blood, to Him be the glory for ever and ever” (Rev. 1:5-65And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, 6And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. (Revelation 1:5‑6)).
F. B.