Are you devoted?

Christian, are you really loving your Lord on a daily basis? Has the fire of your spiritual passions gone cold? Are your devotions looking pretty mechanical? Listen to JC Ryle

Let us remember this in our private devotions. It must not satisfy us to say good words, if our heart and our lips do not go together. What does it profit us to be fluent and lengthy, if our imaginations are roving far away while we are upon our knees? It profits us nothing at all. God sees what we are really doing, and rejects our offering. Heart-prayers are the prayers He loves to hear. Heart-prayers are the only prayers that He will answer. Our petitions may be weak, and stammering, and poor in our eyes. They may be presented with no fine words, or well-chosen language, and might seem almost unintelligible, if they were written down. But if they come from a right heart, God understands them. Such prayers are His delight.

~ J. C. Ryle

Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: Mark, (Banner of Truth).

This is love…

A. W. Pink said —

All religion is in effect love. Faith is thankful acceptance, and thankfulness is an expression of love. Repentance is love mourning. Yearning for holiness is love seeking. Obedience is love pleasing. Self-denial is the mortification of self-love. Sobriety is the curtailing of carnal love….

The affections of man cannot be idle; if they do not go out to God, they leads out to worldly things. When our love for God decreases, the love of the world grows in our soul.

— cited in Iain H. Murray, The Life of Arthur W. Pink (Banner of Truth, 2004).