Why are We left here - JB Stoney

WHY ARE WE LEFT HERE?

The Lord has two reasons for keeping us here: One is to fit us for the place which He has appointed for us in the future spiritual temple. All the hammering is done now. As the flesh is broken down, and set aside by the Spirit, we are according to our growth in grace fit material for His temple.

No one, it is plain, gets rid of the flesh as a whole, but as it is practically set aside, and grace in the power of Christ's life supersedes it, we are accordingly of that measure and size, and thus one stone differs from another stone, but the preparation goes on now. That only will remain which is of Christ. The other reason for our being kept here is that we may serve Him. He has been rejected here, and we are members of His body, and we are never truly happy in divine joy but as we are true to this most intimate relationship to Him. The more I am, through the Spirit, in the sense of this relationship, the better I do everything, and fulfil every duty. The nearer I am to the Lord (see Ephesians) the more truly do I behave myself in every ordinance of God, because it is of God. Once the heart is convinced of the great reality of this relationship, there is a growing readiness to part company with everything which would interfere with it. Though " no infant's changing pleasure is like my wandering mind ", God's Spirit in my heart keeps it assured of the blessedness of my great relationship to Him to whom I owe every­thing ; and thus the two reasons for my remaining on the earth mutually help one another. One's Christian life here is therefore most instructive, and incomparably beautiful, for it is all of God, in the midst of the greatest incongruities. The Lord keep us more simply subject to Him in everything; and thus we shall find that the ways of wisdom are ways of "pleasantness and peace".

I need hardly say how pleased and cheered I am at the prospect, if the Lord will, of seeing you this coming autumn in your old quarters. May each of us be more devoted to His interests, and the more we are the more we shall find that He is occupied with ours.