A friend sent me a quote from Hannah Whitall Smith that I had never read before. (Thank you, Steve!) I just love it! I wish I had this quote when I wrote Seated with Christ because it conceptualizes so well my thoughts on Ephesians 2:6.
The quote comes from a quote in Streams In The Desert (published in 1925 by Lettie Cowman) devotional from October 28. She writes this on Ephesians 2 and encourages us to “sit down”:
This is our rightful place—“seated . . . with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,” yet seated and still. But how few of us actually experience this! In fact, most of us believe it is impossible to sit still “in the heavenly realms” while living our everyday life in a world so full of turmoil.
She continues to discuss what it will feel in our spirit to know we are seated with Christ. She writes:
A quiet spirit is of priceless value when performing outward activities. Nothing so greatly hinders the work of God’s unseen spiritual forces, upon which our success in everything truly depends, as the spirit of unrest and anxiety. There is tremendous power in stillness. A great believer once said, “All things come to him who knows how to trust and to be silent.” This fact is rich with meaning, and a true understanding of it would greatly change our ways of working. Instead of continuing our restless striving, we would “sit down” inwardly before the Lord, allowing the divine forces of His Spirit to silently work out the means to accomplish our goals and aspirations.
I think about sitting down with the Lord in a fresh way today.
