Morning, January 4, edited from Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening

“Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” — 2 Peter 3:18

“Grow in grace”–not in one grace only, but in all grace. Grow in that root grace, faith. Believe the promises more firmly than you have done. Let faith increase in fullness, steadfastness, simplicity. Grow also in love. Ask that your love may become extended, more intense, more practical, influencing every thought, word, and deed. Grow likewise in humility. Seek to lie very low, and know more of your own nothingness. As you grow downward in humility, seek also to grow upward–having nearer approaches to God in prayer and more intimate fellowship with Jesus. May God the Holy Spirit enable you to “grow in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior.” He who does not grow in the knowledge of Jesus, refuses to be blessed. To know him is “life eternal,” and to advance in the knowledge of him is to increase in happiness. He who does not long to know more of Christ, knows nothing of him yet. Whoever has sipped this wine will thirst for more, for although Christ does satisfy, it is such a satisfaction, that the appetite is not satiated, but sharpened. If you know the love of Jesus–as the hart pants for the water-brooks, so will you pant after deeper mouthfuls of his love. If you do not desire to know him better, then you do not love him, for love always cries, “Nearer, nearer.” Absence from Christ is hell; but the presence of Jesus is heaven. Do not rest, then, content without an increasing acquaintance with Jesus. Seek to know more of him in his divine nature, in his human relationship, in his finished work, in his death, in his resurrection, in his present glorious intercession, and in his future royal return. Abide firm by the Cross, and search the mystery of his wounds. An increase of love to Jesus, and a more perfect apprehension of his love to us is one of the best tests of growth in grace.