The following 3 minute devotional is by Pastor James Smith, 1859.
James Smith was a predecessor of Charles Spurgeon at New Park Street Chapel in London from 1841 until 1850. Early on, Smith’s readings were even more popular than Spurgeon’s!
This post is related to the preceding one, Walking in the Spirit; it provides a few insights about how the Spirit works in the born-again believer.
Although I have written about that topic a lot, especially the beatitude posts, I have only scratched the surface. And since contemporary Christianity seemingly understands nothing of the matter, I am going to post a few short videos for those who would know more.
These are intended to give additional understanding to the Walking in the Spirit post of 4-10-21.
Devotional Highlights:
- One great work of the Holy Spirit in our heart is to empty us; strip us of self; lead us to feel our weakness; and to move us to look to Jesus alone ad our wisdom, sanctification, righteousness and redemption
- [in my own experience, these things are very painful, they could be stated: to take away our self-esteem; to show us that we are helpless against sin without Christ; to show us that we are spiritually bankrupt, that our righteousness is as filthy rags; to show us by our incessant sinning, that we are far from righteousness and powerless to fix ourselves — those realizations crush the pride and they enable us to see our wretchedness before a holy God]
- We shall prize and value Christ in proportion to our realization of our absolute nothingness without Him
- Until we know our need of Him, we make little use of Him
- Initially, we come to Him as poor lost sinners in need of the salvation He offers
- We must continue to come to Him with our burdens that He may bear them; with our cares that He might manage them; with our sorrows that He might sanctify them; with the injuries of our foes, that He might conquer them; with our sins, that He might cleanse them;
- It is right that our sense of need for Him increases [by the work of His Spirit noted above]
- It is right that we continually come to Him for our necessary supplies
- Our trials, troubles, temptations, disappointments and vexations are to teach us our need of Christ and move us to depend upon Him [as in the first beatitude, as we comprehend our spiritual bankruptcy, by God’s providence to us]
- There is often much prayer, yet little communion with Christ
- We must realize that He offers us all His attention; He expects us to tell Him all that troubles us, grieves us, pleases us; to share with Him all our needs, desires…
- We should keep back nothing from Him, but speak with Him freely on every subject and circumstance of our lives
- We must be continually going to Christ if we would experience the consoling influences of His love
This devotional came from the YouTube site: Christian Sermons and AudioBooks; the following link is to other devotionals by James Smith at that site. They all seem to be 1-6 minutes in length:
https://www.youtube.com/c/stack45ny/search?query=James%20smith
If you use the link, explore the site for past and current pastors you like to hear; or for topics of the Christian life that you want to understand better, or topics of which you need to have a working knowledge.