October 9 Daily Devotional

Thy gifts alone cannot suffice
Unless Thyself be given

‘If you ask me’, says Paul, ‘what my greatest desire is, it is this: “That I may know him” ‘ [Philippians 3:10]. You notice his supreme ambition ... not to be a great soul winner. That was one ambition of his, and a right one. It was not even to be a great preacher.... Because, as the Apostle reminds us elsewhere, if you put the other things first you may find yourself, even as a preacher, becoming ... a castaway. But when we put Paul’s desire at the centre there is no danger. Paul had seen the face of the living Christ, the risen Lord. Yet what he hungers for and pants after is this further, deeper, more intimate knowledge of Him, a personal knowledge, a personal revelation of the living Lord....

There is nothing higher than this. Look at the aged John writing his farewell letter to Christians. His great desire, he tells them in 1 John 1:4, is ‘that your joy may be full’. How is it to be full? ... that you may share with us as partners the blessed experience we enjoy.... [This] does not just mean that you are engaged in God’s work. It means that, of course; but that is the lowest level. The highest level is really to know God Himself. ‘This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent’ (John 17:3).... When a man asked [Jesus] which was the greatest commandment of all, He said, ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind ...’ (Matthew 22:37). The first thing, the most important thing in life, is that we so know God that we love Him with the whole of our being. To be satisfied with anything short of that... is to misunderstand the whole end and object and purpose of Christian salvation. Do not stop at forgiveness. Do not stop at experiences. The end is to know God, and lothing less. This Psalmist [Psalm 73] is able to say that he now desires God for His own sake, and not merely for what God gives and does.

Faith on Trial, pp. 110–11