I do not know if any of you ever groan; there is much to make you do so, much to knock at the door of your heart, if Christ is not there. There is the sand of the wilderness, and Christ alone can keep it out. Yes, there is much to make the people of God groan, much to skew them, as things pass on, what a worthless thing human nature is (Peter could curse and deny his Lord); and what is the Lord's answer to it all? " Let not your heart be troubled, ye believe in God, believe also in me."
God reads everything in us; sees the flesh and the Spirit both striving for the mastery in our hearts;. but God's way is to cripple the flesh, yet with the most amazing gentleness; cutting off a limb, yet full of love. God's thought is not to nourish and cheer the flesh, but to deliver us from it. He is dealing, with you to deliver you from the flesh and to build you up in the Spirit. You cannot say to God "Thou hast given me life, leave me alone -" He will not do so. No father would leave his children without chastening if needed for their profit. How He cripples the flesh, as we see in Paul!
If Christ were always in the heart, we should not let the sand of the wilderness in, not that we should never have any, but if we have the oil of His presence, the sand cannot stick and clog our feet.
I have gone through a bit of the wilderness, and many have more, and what is the answer to that which is before us? There may be the bitterness of sorrow and trial to taste on to the end; but what is the answer to everything? " Let not your heart be troubled-believe in me." As much as to say "Let me be the answer to it all." He had been telling them that He was going away, and it was to stay away two thousand years, but He says "If I go away I shall come back again and receive you to myself, that where I am, there ye may be also." He could not forget to come, He never forgets His promise, it is ever fresh in His mind.
How many are there in trial and difficulty, who, in contrast to it all, find great brightness in the thought that all will soon end in the presence of the Lord! Others there are, vexed with self trying to carry the cross, seeing such failures that they hardly like to give a testimony, yet who in the midst of it are looking up with the thought that when with Christ, all will be unbroken light.
As one looks at Christ in the glory, and then at ourselves, one thinks, " there will not be beautiful garments found for God after such a course; but there will be the discovery that all through it He was sheaving His love."
It is true that that living Christ is where He is, in the Father's house; it is true that He will have us there as witnesses of His faithfulness. And we shall find there everything in contrast with what we have passed through down here. Not only there the all-pervading power of the Spirit working everywhere; not only the brightness of unsullied glory and of everything that the heart could desire in the presence of the Lord, being like Christ and the reflectors of His glory. But besides all this, we shall have the sweet consciousness of ever learning in Him the love of the Father that brought us there. The little realization there is of that love is a mark of the low state of believers in the present time.
That which puts before the heart the manner of the love of Christ is, to see Him up there wanting to share with us what is dear to Himself, desiring to have us partakers with Him in the brightness of that glory given Him by the Father. Seeing a guilty conscience, having washed and cleansed it in His own blood, He must have the poor sinner with Himself. Oh, this Christ does love! and of His love alone could it be said " there is a love which passes knowledge." Which is most worthy to occupy our thoughts, the littleness of our love, or the fullness of that love which passes knowledge?