Maintaining Communion with the Lord Jesus

There are certain means which the Lord has kindly afforded, whereby our faith, and hope, and love, our godly fear and patience, these divine graces, may be all strengthened, watered and kept alive. Let me name some of these means of grace.

1. First, there is the diligent and prayerful reading of the Word. “Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom.” Now this surely means something more than merely reading the Word in a careless, formal manner. It is “to dwell in us,” that is, take up its firm and lasting abode in our heart, and that “richly”; not poorly but copiously and abundantly, unfolding to us and putting us into possession of the wealth of its treasures; and that in “all wisdom,” making us wise to salvation, opening up to us the manifold wisdom of God, and how it displays itself in the great mystery of godliness. Now, we shall not attain to this rich and heavenly wisdom unless we search and study the Scriptures with prayer and supplication to understand what the Holy Ghost has revealed therein, and what He is pleased to unfold therefrom of the will and the way of God for our own personal instruction and consolation.

We very easily fall off from abiding in Christ; nor can we expect to keep up sensible union and communion with the Lord Jesus if we neglect those means of grace which the Holy Ghost had provided for the sustenation of the life of God in the soul. When we get cold, sluggish and dead, to read the Word of God is a task and a burden; but not so, when the life of God is warm and gushing in the soul. Then to read His holy Word with prayer and supplication, entering by faith into its hidden treasures, and drinking into the mind of Christ as revealed therein, is a blessed means of maintaining the life of God in the heart, and keeping up that union and communion with Christ which we hope we have from time to time enjoyed. Never, perhaps, was the Bible more read, and never, perhaps, less understood, less felt, less tasted, less handled, less enjoyed and, above all, less acted on than in our day.

2. Prayer and supplication, I need not mention, is also another special means of grace to enable us to abide in Christ. Indeed, I may say that without it it is impossible sensibly to abide in Him. When the breath of prayer is faint and languid in the soul, when there are few desires after the Lord, there is no sensible abiding in Him as a branch in the Vine so as to receive out of His fullness.

3. Another means of grace is assembling ourselves with the people of God at the seasons of public worship. The ordinance of preaching and united prayer should never be neglected by any who fear God. It is indeed a precious privilege to join with the ransomed family in hearing the Word, singing His praises, and meeting together as a family in His house. Nor can we hope to abide in union and communion with the Lord and His people if we neglect the house of prayer and make lazy excuses why we should not come up to worship in His courts. In fact, to very many of the family of God, who are toiling and laboring all through the week to earn the bread which perisheth, there is no sweeter or more suitable means of grace than the preached Word on the Lord’s day.

4. The ordinances of God’s house were also instituted by our most gracious Lord as a means of maintaining the life of God in the soul, and thus keeping up union and communion with Himself. Baptism is an ordinance which God has much blessed. The Lord’s Supper, in which figuratively we eat His flesh and drink His blood, is a blessed means also of keeping up and maintaining the life of God in the soul, and cementing our union with the Lord and His people.

5. Associating ourselves in spiritual intercourse with the dear family of God, making them our choice friends and bosom companions, and taking sweet converse together in speaking of the Lord’s Word and the Lord’s work, is a blessed means of keeping up and maintaining in vigorous exercise the life of God in the soul. How often are we strengthened and encouraged, cheered and comforted by our intercourse with the spiritually minded (of whom, alas! there are few) of the family of God. From them we get sometimes a word to help us in the path of temptation, as finding them no strangers to it; and at others, the example of their liberality, consistency, self-denial and practical godliness, whilst it may cast us down at our own dissimilarity, may yet stir us up to walk more closely with God as we see them to walk.

6. Private meditation, close and frequent self-examination, leading a life of separation from the world, being much alone with the Lord and ourselves, in searching His Word for direction, and often looking up to the God of all our mercies for the support that He is able to communicate — this path, though sadly neglected, for in our day as in the days of Jael, “this high way of holiness is much unoccupied, and travellers now walk through by-ways” (Judges 5:6), yet, is, when persevered in, a most blessed means of abiding in Christ.

These are the Lord’s appointed means of maintaining His own life in our breast; and if you will search the Scriptures you will see how continually they are spoken of either in the form of precept or that of example. Compare, for instance, with what I have laid down, the Psalms, and especially Psalm 119, and the precepts and directions of our Lord in the Gospels, and of His inspired apostles in the epistles, and I think you will find I have traced out a scriptural path. And O the blessedness of abiding in Christ, in sensible union and communion with Him so as to talk with Jesus, hold intercourse with Him, receive His gracious promises as He has revealed them, sit under His shadow with some measure of delight, and find His fruit sweet to our taste.

But we cannot attain to all this by sloth, carelessness and indifference; by that easy, loose, slipshod profession so rife in the present day, just as if all religion consists in believing a few doctrines, and adopting a few set phrases without any vital operation of the Holy Spirit upon our heart.

Rev. J.C. Philpot (1802-1869) was educated at Worcester College, Oxford, seceded from the ministry of the Church of England in 1835 to join the Strict and Particular Baptist body, and pastured congregations at Stamford, Oakham, and Croydon. During his long ministry, he was editor of the Gospel Standard, from which this article is extracted.

Deze tekst is geautomatiseerd gemaakt en kan nog fouten bevatten. Digibron werkt voortdurend aan correctie. Klik voor het origineel door naar de pdf. Voor opmerkingen, vragen, informatie: contact.

Op Digibron -en alle daarin opgenomen content- is het databankrecht van toepassing. Gebruiksvoorwaarden. Data protection law applies to Digibron and the content of this database. Terms of use.

Printen