Capacities To Know God

Charles Spurgeon on our capacities to know God:

Did you ever climb a mountain? A friend of mine, when among the Alps, asserted confidently that he could reach the top of a certain mountain in half an hour. It certainly looked very near us, but my eye had been better educated to estimate distances among mountains, and I assured him that it would take him all day to stand on that ridge. The fact is that when you have climbed one stiff bit of hill you find yourself bound to go down into a valley before you can tackle the next ascent. There are hills above hills, and one summit is a sort of lookout from which you see that you have much further to go.

That which looked like a part of the side of the hill may really be a mountain by itself. When you have ascended it, you have the cheering privilege of seeing that you are now at the bottom of the next. In fact, although you are decidedly higher, you often seem to have further to go than when you started. It is just so with our experience of divine things. When we know the Lord to the full of our capacity, that capacity enlarges, and we begin to learn again. We know more, and for that very reason are far more conscious of our ignorance than we were at first.

Charles Spurgeon, 300 Sermon Illustrations from Charles Spurgeon, ed. Elliot Ritzema and Lynnea Smoyer (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2017).

Continue to pursue God every day, even if you feel you are in a “slump”. You may simply be in the valley before the next mountain. God delights to teach us about Himself and it is our delight to know Him.

Fighting to know God on the mundane days,

Josh.

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