7-2. Personal Appreciation
“As ye have, therefore, received Christ Jesus as Lord, so walk ye in Him, rooted and built up in Him” (Col. 2:7).
We appreciate His benefits toward us, but are we appreciative—do we express to Him our appreciation?
“Let us be very watchful that the inner life, communion with the Lord Jesus, be the true source of our activities.”
“The Lord Jesus longs for fellowship with us. He does not want patronage. It does not meet the desire of His heart to be followed, or admired, or gazed at, because of what He can do or give. He delights in a heart taught of the Spirit to appreciate His Person, for this glorifies and gratifies the Father. He retires from the gaze of an excited and tumultuous throng who would fain make Him a king, because they had eaten of the loaves and were filled; but He could turn with touching earnestness to the little band of disciples who still remained, and challenge their hearts with the question, ‘Will ye also go away?’“
“Love could never be too near to its object. Nearness to the Lord Jesus is the instinct of divine life, as we see in the first question of the two disciples who followed Him, ‘Where dwellest Thou?’ Why is not this the first question now? Because there is not simple devotedness of heart to the Lord Jesus Christ.”
“There is nothing in all the world so precious to the Father as a heart that, in any measure, appreciates His Son.”
“Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28).