Morning By Morning #298

The trees of the LORD are full of sap.

Psalm 104:16 KJV

From the pen of Charles Spurgeon:

Without sap a tree cannot exist, much less flourish. Life is essential to Christians, and for life to exist it must be infused into us by God the Holy Spirit or else we cannot be trees of the Lord. Being a Christian in name only is dead, for we must be filled with God’s divine life, which is something quite mysterious. Just as we do not fully see how the sap of a tree circulates or by what power it rises and falls in the tree, neither do we fully understand the sacred mystery of the life within us. Regeneration is a work of the Holy Spirit who enters a person and becomes his life. This divine life in a believer then feeds upon the flesh and blood of Christ and is therefore sustained by God’s divine food, but where it comes from or where it goes, who can explain to us? What a secret thing is this divine “sap”!

The roots of trees search deep into the soil, sending out their tiny tentacles, but we cannot see them extract the various nutrients or see how they transform them into fruit, for their work is done in secret. Likewise, our root is Christ Jesus and “[our] life is now hidden with Christ in God” (Col. 3:3), which is the secret of the Lord. The origin of the Christian life is as secret as that of life itself.

As the sap of a cedar is constantly active, so is the divine life always at work in Christians, not always in producing fruit but in inner purposes as well. A believer’s gifts of grace are not always being exhibited and used, but his life never ceases to have an inner palpitation. He is not always at work for God, but his heart is always drawing its life from Him. And as the sap reveals itself in producing the foliage and fruit of the tree, so it is with a truly healthy Christian, for God’s gift of grace is externally revealed through his walk and conversation. If you talk with a believer, he cannot help speaking about Jesus, and if you look at his actions you will take “note that [he has] been with Jesus” (Acts 4:13). He will have so much “sap” within, it will completely fill his conduct and conversation with life.

From the pen of Jim Reimann:

God always does things in a big way, and when He gives life, He does not do so sparingly. Jesus said, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10 KJV). As believers, we are to pour our lives into the lives of others, but the life we pour out is God’s life. Jesus described it as a never-ending well, or fountain. He said, “Whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:14), and “Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him” (John 7:38).

Paul then spoke of God’s overflowing abundance by saying:

He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God.

2 Corinthians 9:10 – 12