James Smith, 1842
 

"I will be their God--and they will be My people!" Hebrews 8:10

I will be their God! So has Jehovah purposed in reference to all the chosen of His love! In this gracious and holy purpose, is wrapped up all present and future blessedness. If Jehovah is your God--then all His glorious perfections are engaged and employed for your welfare:
His mercy will supply all your needs;
His power will conquer all your foes;
His wisdom will direct your way;
His faithfulness will answer your prayers;
His justice will maintain your cause; and
His infinite love and grace will be displayed in all His dealings with you!

If God is your God, then . . .
His promises--are your heritage,
His precepts--are your rule,
His doctrines--are your present paradise,
His Son--is your Savior and King,
His Spirit--is your Sanctifier and Tutor,
and He Himself--is your everlasting portion!

If God is your God, then He will freely confer on you all good things at present--and crown you at last with everlasting glory. He will . . .
guide you continually,
chasten you occasionally,
receive you graciously,
and bless you indeed!

If God is your God, then all things are yours; things present, things to come; life, death, the world--all are yours!

If God is your God, then He will consider . . .
nothing too good to give you,
nothing too great to do for you,
nothing too glorious to make over to you.

If God is your God, then all the resources of eternity and all the treasures of time--will, if necessary, be employed in your spiritual and eternal benefit. This is the highest point of blessedness and honor--and this honor have all His saints.

He who has God to be his God--cannot lack any good thing; but he who has not God for his God--lacks everything really and truly good.

They shall be My people--that is, a people peculiarly My own. In order to accomplish this gracious and glorious design, He sends His gospel to our ears--and His Spirit into our hearts. We then are deeply convinced of sin, actual and original, open and secret. The streams are first discovered--but at length the fountain is disclosed. The feeling sense of sin, danger, and condemnation, with which we are favored--urges and impels us to flee to Jesus for mercy, pardon, peace, and endless life. We knock at the door of His mercy, and wait for tokens of His love. We ask of Him the blessings we need, and look for the favors we entreat. We seek for a saving interest in His blood, and are anxious until we find it applied.

In due time, when God will get great glory, and we the most benefit--we find Jesus to be made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption; made so to us of God, revealed as such in His precious word, and realized as the whole by a living faith. The Son makes us free--and we are free indeed. The Spirit of adoption teaches us to claim relation to Jehovah, and to call Him with confidence and pleasure--our Father and Friend.

Delighted with His love, rejoicing in His grace, and adoring His glorious perfections--we desire to glorify His name. We are ready to undertake anything for His honor, and to do whatever He commands. Divine love shed abroad in the heart, produces the most delightful liberty, and constrains us to willing obedience. The language of the happy soul is, "What shall I render unto the Lord for all His benefits? What shall I do to glorify my God?"

His commandments are no longer grievous; but, washed in atoning blood, clothed in justifying righteousness, and sanctified by the indwelling and operation of the Holy Comforter--they esteem all His precepts concerning all things, to be right, and hate every false way. Obedience is now the element of the soul, and it runs in the way of God's commandments--grace having enlarged the heart.

Happy, happy soul! It enjoys a peace which passes all understanding, lives by faith above bondage and death, and finds God Himself to be its exceeding joy. It is no more a stranger and a foreigner in the family of God--but a beloved brother, and a joint-heir with Jesus Christ. It becomes a stranger and a pilgrim in the world, and declares plainly, by its practices--that it seeks a city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.

Christ is now the blessed object of faith,
the precious Bible is now the daily Counselor, and
perfect holiness is now the object of ardent and inextinguishable desire.

Nothing can now satisfy the soul, but holy fellowship with God--and few things grieve more than sensible distance from Him. The saved soul now delights . . .
to lie at the feet of Jesus,
to meditate on Gethsemane,
to look at His bleeding cross,
to feed on Him as the bread of life, and
to enjoy Him as the fountain of salvation.

Such are God's people, when favored with the Lord's grace, and the workings of His Holy Spirit it their hearts. True, they feel much distress from inbred corruptions, a great conflict with indwelling sin, and much hindrance from the law of sin in the members; but God gives them the victory, and they triumph in Christ. Holiness is their element--and sin is disagreeable. Darkness they hate--and the light they love. And if they could have their way, they would be always employed for the Redeemer's praise, blessed with His sweet presence, dead to the present world, and have their heart and treasure in Heaven.

Are you one of the Lord's people? Is God your covenant God? Are you sighing for this blessing, and seeking this favor? Do you leave the world, and in secret prayer, close searching the Bible, and attendance at holy ordinances--seek the Lord and His favor? If so, you shall find Him; for Jesus declares, "Every one who seeks, finds." Happy is the soul that is in such a case; yes, blessed is the man who has Jehovah for His God!