For a saint to have solitude is of the greatest importance, because it is then the heart strengthens its fellowship with God, who alone has entrance into our most solitary retreats. When we are thoroughly alone and apart, He loves to be our companion; it is, so to speak, the time for Him to come, like a ray of light which penetrates into the dark cavern wherever it can, and to the inmate of the cavern, never was light more prized.
I believe there are two things learned in solitude that cannot be learned otherwise—one, that I see myself apart from everyone and everything, a very necessary matter; and the other, that I see the Lord Jesus in quite a peculiar light, in a singular and unique way, apart from everything and everyone. His individuality, blessed be His name, comes out to me in solitude in a way it never does in a crowd. The Song of Solomon gives you the idea of this: what one is oneself when quite alone, and what He is to one thus alone.
When I am alone with Him He obtains His singularly preeminent place, not as a Savior, though He is that to faith; but He is known to the heart as the Sun. He “rules the day,” so that when all other objects are visible, He is still entirely preeminent, and the sense of His preeminence, well-known and well-sustained, is the most effectual resource for the heart all the day long, and abides with it through its most anxious moments. In solitude with Him the value and resources He is to the heart are learned, and when busied in duties it turns to Him as the needle to the pole, or as the flower to the sun.
Where the soul has acquired the sense of His preeminence in its solitude, when it has to return to others and to duties, everything falls in relation to Him. He is first, and things and people assume and derive importance, not as to whether they are pleasing or otherwise, but as they relate to Him. If you make the claims on you the sun of your system, instead of the Lord Jesus, then whatever seems to come short throws your day into darkness, because the claims are not answered as you desire them to be, and there is the sense of an eclipse.
If the Lord Jesus were the distinct, known magnet to you, every day would be less anxious, and you would fulfill each better, and instead of being saddened and disappointed, you would hear His, “She hath done what she could” (Mark 14:8); and with this you would have a weight that would render whatever you did more appreciated. Love never likes to see its object needing. It serves because it loves; you are trying to arrange your world with only a lamp in your hand; why, if you had a sun all would be easy enough. It is in solitude with the Lord Jesus that one learns to find Him as the Sun. When the heart has found its rest and satisfaction in Him, it can turn to Him naturally and continually in every circumstance.
- J B Stoney
MJS devotional for Sept. 19:
"I can always know when the Holy Spirit is leading me, because He ever occupies me with the Lord Jesus. True, He may have to call attention to my own condition, but if He does, He turns me to the Lord Jesus, not merely to convict me, but to relieve me." -J.B.S.
"Spiritual growth is the Holy Spirit engraving the Lord Jesus on a man’s heart, putting Him into his thoughts, his words, and his ways, just as the Law was engraved upon stones. It is not that there is no failure. A man who is seeking to make money does not always succeed; but everybody knows what his object is. Just so, the Lord Jesus Christ is the object of the believer’s life." -J.N.D.
http://www.abideabove.com/hungry-heart/
I believe there are two things learned in solitude that cannot be learned otherwise—one, that I see myself apart from everyone and everything, a very necessary matter; and the other, that I see the Lord Jesus in quite a peculiar light, in a singular and unique way, apart from everything and everyone. His individuality, blessed be His name, comes out to me in solitude in a way it never does in a crowd. The Song of Solomon gives you the idea of this: what one is oneself when quite alone, and what He is to one thus alone.
When I am alone with Him He obtains His singularly preeminent place, not as a Savior, though He is that to faith; but He is known to the heart as the Sun. He “rules the day,” so that when all other objects are visible, He is still entirely preeminent, and the sense of His preeminence, well-known and well-sustained, is the most effectual resource for the heart all the day long, and abides with it through its most anxious moments. In solitude with Him the value and resources He is to the heart are learned, and when busied in duties it turns to Him as the needle to the pole, or as the flower to the sun.
Where the soul has acquired the sense of His preeminence in its solitude, when it has to return to others and to duties, everything falls in relation to Him. He is first, and things and people assume and derive importance, not as to whether they are pleasing or otherwise, but as they relate to Him. If you make the claims on you the sun of your system, instead of the Lord Jesus, then whatever seems to come short throws your day into darkness, because the claims are not answered as you desire them to be, and there is the sense of an eclipse.
If the Lord Jesus were the distinct, known magnet to you, every day would be less anxious, and you would fulfill each better, and instead of being saddened and disappointed, you would hear His, “She hath done what she could” (Mark 14:8); and with this you would have a weight that would render whatever you did more appreciated. Love never likes to see its object needing. It serves because it loves; you are trying to arrange your world with only a lamp in your hand; why, if you had a sun all would be easy enough. It is in solitude with the Lord Jesus that one learns to find Him as the Sun. When the heart has found its rest and satisfaction in Him, it can turn to Him naturally and continually in every circumstance.
- J B Stoney
MJS devotional for Sept. 19:
"I can always know when the Holy Spirit is leading me, because He ever occupies me with the Lord Jesus. True, He may have to call attention to my own condition, but if He does, He turns me to the Lord Jesus, not merely to convict me, but to relieve me." -J.B.S.
"Spiritual growth is the Holy Spirit engraving the Lord Jesus on a man’s heart, putting Him into his thoughts, his words, and his ways, just as the Law was engraved upon stones. It is not that there is no failure. A man who is seeking to make money does not always succeed; but everybody knows what his object is. Just so, the Lord Jesus Christ is the object of the believer’s life." -J.N.D.
http://www.abideabove.com/hungry-heart/
