Morning & Evening Devotional Reading–

October 24– Morning

 by C. H. Spurgeon, revised and edited by W. C. Neff

“The trees of the Lord are full of sap.”.” 

—Psalm 104:16

Without sap a tree can’t flourish or even exist. In the same way, vitality is essential to a Christian. There must be life infused into us by God the Holy Spirit or we cannot be trees of the Lord.

The mere name of being a Christian is dead in itself; we must be filled with the spirit of divine life, and this life is mysterious. We don’t understand the circulation of sap, what causes it to rise, what forces it to descend again. And the life within is also a sacred mystery. Regeneration is accomplished by the Holy Spirit, entering into a person’s life, and afterwards he is sustained by divine food. But where that life comes from and where it goes, who can explain it?

What a secret thing the sap is! The roots go searching through the soil with their little tentacles, but we can’t see them suck out the various gases or transmute the mineral into the vegetable; this work is done deep down in the dark. Our root is Christ Jesus, and our life is hidden in him. The root of the Christian life is as secret as life itself.

Just as the sap is permanently active in the cedar, God is always active in the Christian. His inwardly received grace makes him always full of energy not only to bear visible fruit but often in inward, unseen operations. The believer’s graces, therefore, are in constant motion. His life never ceases to palpitate within. He is not always working for God (in a public sense), but his heart is always living upon him.

As the sap works to produce foliage and fruit on the tree, so with a truly healthy Christian God’s grace produces external and visible activity. If you talk with him, he cannot help speaking about Jesus. If you notice his actions, you will see that he has been with Jesus. He has so much sap within that it must fill his lifestyle in every way. [M&E]