"The flesh is a cat that gets our tongue. The greatest destroyer of first-love fire is the neglect of private communication with God. In Isaiah 43:22 God says, "You have not called upon me, O Jacob, you have not wearied yourselves for me, O Israel." Two lovers who never speak to each other are not two lovers. A husband who avoids his wife, who reads the paper when she wants to talk to him, who takes up hunting or reading to busy himself so that he won't have to commune with her, simply doesn't love her. Period.
The person who calls himself a Christian, who says he loves God yet does not seek his company and delight in it, can't be a true lover of God. His own flesh has deceived him. If he doesn't daily give his heart to God and receive God's heart in return, if he doesn't daily renew his hatred of his own sin and his delight in God's mercy, he has no relationship to God."
[From Kris Lundgaard's excellent (and devastating) little book on the doctrine of indwelling sin The Enemy Within, pg. 118-119, emphasis in the original.]
1 comments:
Wow, what a vivid illustration pointing to a gripping truth.
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