HEARTS UNITED IN LOVE

"Blessed is the man whose strength is in Thee: in whose heart are the ways of Them." —Psalm 84:5 [KJV]

When hearts are united in love there is a mutual complacency and delight in each other. Presence increaseth pleasure, absence begets uneasiness, jealousy of displeasing and fear of offending mutually subsist in each party. In some sense this holds good between the beloved soul and the loving Lord. All love is from Him; and as rivers from the sea return back to the great ocean, so the love which comes from God naturally flows back in complacency and affection of soul to Him. To know God is to love Him; both for what He is in Himself, and what He is to us in Christ Jesus. 

The poor sinner who knows that he is in himself "without strength," rejoiceth at his very soul to know that the omnipotent Jesus is his strength; that all his might and power to strive against sin, to resist Satan, to overcome the world, is from above; it is treasured up in Jesus, and out of His fulness he is strengthened by the power of the Spirit through faith. But is the converted heart a mere vacuum, like an empty vessel? No, truly; Jesus dwells there by faith. It is a fit habitation for the Spirit, and the love of the Father is shed abroad in it. "The ways of Them," even Father, Son, and Spirit dwell in the heart. 

Then the way of everlasting love and eternal election is delighted in; the way of free grace and complete salvation by Jesus is gloried in; the way of atonement by His precious blood, the way of justification and clothing of poor sinners by His perfect righteousness are wholly trusted to and rejoiced in. The gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit, as flowing from Jesus' finished work, in making the soul inwardly holy, and outwardly obedient to the Lord; in comforting and rejoicing the heart by the testimony of Jesus, are more and more sought after; and the hopes and views of glory in this sovereign, free, gracious WAY, are longed for and expected. 

Blessed, O man, art thou indeed! Blessed of thy God! Blessed with all spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus! Blessed, not for days, months, and years; but loved from eternity, and blessed to eternity! Thy Lord hath blessed thee and He will not reverse it. Real godliness consists not merely in a system of notions in the head, but in the indwelling presence of Jehovah in the heart. Is this thy happiness, O sinner? What love hath the great God to vile man! He dwelt in flesh FOR us. He saith also, "I will dwell IN them, and walk IN them."—II Corinthians 6:16.

How well Thy blessed truths agree! 

How wise and holy Thy commands! 

Thy promises how firm they be! 

How firm our hope and comfort stands!

Should all the forms that men devise, 

Assault my faith with treach'rous art, 

I'd call them vanity and lies, 

And bind the gospel to my heart.

 

-preacher William Mason (1724-1797 A.D.)

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