In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.
—œ John 1:4
It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words which I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.
—œ John 6:63
When we are short of the enjoyment of Christ as our life, then everything will be “gloomy.” Nothing will be exciting to us. We will tell the Lord, “Lord, I know so many things about You, but they are not real to me. I know that you are my Lord and that You take care of me, but I don’t really feel anything. I know that You are ‘all in all’ and that I should be joyful, but I cannot be joyful.” Have we ever had this experience? Many times we know what should be true in our Christian life, but it is not real with us. We know that as Christians we should be dynamic, powerful, and energetic. We know we should be joyful, cheerful, and excited. We know all these things, but we just can’t be those. Why aren’t we able to be what we know we’re supposed to be? Because we are short of the enjoyment of Christ as life. Only Christ as life can meet our daily needs.
Suppose we wake up in the morning and simply feel bad. There’s no need to remain in such a state. We don’t need to condemn ourselves: “Oh, I’m so poor. I’m so weak.” We just need to turn to the Lord and enjoy Christ as life. We should open the Bible and begin to call on the Lord’s name a little. We can say from our spirit, “Oh, Lord Jesus. Oh, Lord Jesus.” Then we can turn to the Bible and read one verse. Then we can call on the Lord again and pray just a little. Then we can read another verse and pray again, just a little.
It doesn’t need to be long—maybe just 20-30 minutes. But very soon we will be filled with Christ as life. We will feel that our sleepiness is over, our bad feeling is over, our depression is over, our problems and anxieties are over, and everything negative is over. Why? Because we are enjoying Christ as the very life. All of a sudden we are full of desire to love and serve the Lord and to spend more time with our brothers and sisters in the church. The more we come to the Lord in this way, the more we will find that a tide of life will rise up within us.
Adapted from Born Again, pages 60-61.
Tomorrow: “Enjoying Christ as Our Life (3)”