| Devotional Hours with the Bible |
Chapter 16 |
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What is an abundant life? It does not need to be a conspicuous life, one which makes itself heard on the streets. There are some good people who seem to suppose that they are living for a purpose only when they are making themselves seen and heard. Yet there are those who are rich in outward incident but poor in inward experience. One may have abundant life and yet move among men so quietly as almost to be unheard and unknown. Of our Lord Himself it was written, “He shall not strive, nor cry; neither shall any man hear His voice in the streets” (Matt. 12:19). No other ever had such fullness and abundance of life as He had, and yet no other ever lived and worked so quietly as He did. Noise is not force. The real power in life is in its influence, in its character and personality.
Our Lord puts first in the Beatitudes — humility. “Blessed are the poor in spirit” (Matt. 5:3). It is the lowly ones who live nearest to the heart of Christ and have most of His life in them. Not those who fill the largest places in the eyes of men, even in the church, nor those whose works attract the most attention, have most of God in the, but those who live humbly, with no thought of human recognition or praise.
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