THE HEART SETTLED

THE HEART SETTLED

The heart is never fixed, or as Peter expresses it, settled, until it has an object that controls it; not only one that it merely turns to and delights in, as a mother does to her child, or the miser to his riches, or the botanist to his garden. It is not enough that Christ should be your resource, but you must be detained by Him, captivated by Him in judgment and heart, and not merely as a necessity. Then you could not ^[p. 254] bear to see anything but as He sees it. You would be like the moon, which has no light without the sun; and you would prefer to be an unmeaning body of barren soil, to being anything which is not derived from Him.

Your mistake has been that you have been too much satisfied with turning to Him instead of coming from Him; being so with Him that you come into your daily circumstances as the angel of His presence. Of course we have to turn to Him, and it is most blessed to get what we need from Him; but when He controls me, I can enjoy nothing apart from Him; and the first thought of my heart about everything is, How does He like it? The heart likes to be controlled by an object worthy of controlling it. When you are thus controlled, you surrender your will and judgment to Him. You follow Him; you do not only seek Him. Surely you would find how differently you would encounter every question or case which would crop up, were you to come into the scene of them reflecting the light of Christ on them, as a moon in a dark night. Not merely submitting cases and questions to Him, but casting the light and mind of Christ, which are the cheer and sustainment of your own heart, upon them as they arise in your path. There is a great practical difference between going from darkness to get light, and coming from light into darkness. In the latter you are always safe yourself.