More Thoughts From Charles Spurgeon

Dear Friends,

Have you ever thought back on your earliest days in the faith? In this excerpt written by Charles Spurgeon entitled, "Spring in the Heart" he does just that. He compares the blessedness of Christian maturity with the blessedness of our first love for Jesus. I found it insightful. You may too. Enjoy.

Spring in the Heart
Maturity vs. the Blessedness of Being Young in the Faith

"In looking back upon the ‘springtime’ of my Christian walk, I sometimes think God blessed me then in a way in which I wish he would bless me now. An apple tree when loaded with apples is a very desirable sight, but for beauty, give me the apple tree in bloom… There are few things in the whole world that excel it in beauty.

In a similar way, a full-grown Christian laden with fruit is a blessed sight, but still there is a peculiar blessedness about the young Christian in bloom. Let me just tell you what I think that blessedness is.

The young believer often has a greater tenderness about sin than some professors who have known the Lord for years. They have a graver sense of duty, and a more solemn fear of the neglect of it than some who have known the Lord for years. And they have a greater zeal than many older believers. They are doing their first-works for God, and burning with their first love. Nothing is too hot for them or too hard for them.

For them to go to a sermon – no matter what weather it may be – seems an imperative necessity. They would go over the hedge and ditch to hear the Word. But some who are of older growth want soft cushions to sit upon. When the sanctuary is full, they cannot stand in the aisle as they used to do, and everybody must be particularly polite to them when they come in, or they care not to worship at all.

In the Springtime of our walk with Christ it was different. In the early years of our new-found love for Jesus we were consumed with thoughts of pleasing Him and no sacrifice seemed too much. We relished the chance to sacrifice for Him because it offered us an opportunity to display the great love we had for Him. But often, in later years, after the petals have fallen from the blossom, and the fruit has ripened, and the branches are laden with the weight of a mature crop, we can often become more fixed, stayed, and sluggish.

The apple is much harder than its blossom's flower petals, and it can look more to being harvested than to being blown about by the warm Spring winds. The mature apple has a desirable beauty about it, and one can smell its sweetness, but the Wind has a harder time moving it however it wills, and the slightest bump or disturbance can bruise it.”

May we always remember the “springtime” of our walk with Jesus. May we recall the zeal we had (though sometimes lacking in wisdom). The willingness to sacrifice for Him. The tenderness of our consciences. Our remorse over the slightest sin or disobedience. Our heartfelt desire to please Him, and be used by Him, regardless of the cost to us. Even the willingness to go to any far-off place on earth that He might call us to go - in order to do so.

Lord Jesus, help us not only to remember these things, but pray that you might bless us with a blessed mix of the beauty and fragrance of the blossoms with their petals so easily blown by the Wind, even as we bear the heavier growth of ripening fruit ready to be harvested, and not so easily moved by that same Wind. Give us the grace to remember our first love as we seek to regain a degree of what we may have lost. Amen.