Sunday, November 4, 2007

Lilies of the Word

This is a beautiful devotional by Charles Spurgeon. I love these words: "Jesus feedeth among the lilies of the word, and you walk among those lilies, and yet you behold Him not."

Luke 24:16
But their eyes were holden that they should not know Him.


The disciples ought to have known Jesus, they had heard His voice so often, and gazed upon that marred face so frequently, that it is wonderful they did not discover Him. Yet is it not so with you also? You have not seen Jesus lately. You have been to His table, and you have not met Him there. You are in a dark trouble this evening, and though He plainly says, "It is I, be not afraid," yet you cannot discern Him. Alas! our eyes are holden. We know His voice; we have looked into His face; we have leaned our head upon His bosom, and yet, though Christ is very near us, we are saying "O that I knew where I might find Him!" We should know Jesus, for we have the Scriptures to reflect His image, and yet how possible it is for us to open that precious book and have no glimpse of the Wellbeloved! Dear child of God, are you in that state? Jesus feedeth among the lilies of the word, and you walk among those lilies, and yet you behold Him not. He is accustomed to walk through the glades of Scripture, and to commune with His people, as the Father did with Adam in the cool of the day, and yet you are in the garden of Scripture, but cannot see Him, though He is always there. And why do we not see Him? It must be ascribed in our case, as in the disciples', to unbelief. They evidently did not expect to see Jesus, and therefore they did not know Him. To a great extent in spiritual things we get what we expect of the Lord. Faith alone can bring us to see Jesus. Make it your prayer, "Lord, open Thou mine eyes, that I may see my Saviour present with me." It is a blessed thing to want to see Him; but oh! it is better far to gaze upon Him. To those who seek Him He is kind; but to those who find Him, beyond expression is He dear!

6 comments:

Mimi said...

Cathy,
I think that many times when we are reading the Scripture we are just rushing through in order to complete our Bible Reading for the day... and we are not really looking to see Jesus...
thank you for this reminder that when we go to the Scripture... we should be looking for Jesus there...and if we look for Him ... we will find Him!

Cathy said...

Yes, Mimi, I thought of seeking and found this verse.
De 4:29 -
But if from thence thou shalt seek the LORD thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul.

And we need to have faith.

Maxine said...

"We get what we expect of the Lord." Such true words. One thing about Spurgeon, he directs us to Jesus. Nothing better that a preacher can do and he did it faithfully. Thanks for these nice devotionals, Cathy.
I love those words, too, about the lilies.

Cathy said...

You are welcome, Maxine. I just love his devotionals. Our Jesus is the rose of sharon and the lily of the valleys.

Unknown said...

Oh yes may the scales be removed from our eyes that we can really see the Lord. He wants to give us so much and we only allow what we think He can give.
Wonderful post.

Cathy said...

Thank you, Nancy. I have heard someone teach that the Lord hides. I do believe we need to seek Him, and He will be found.