Ephesians 3:17

It is exceedingly desirable that we, as believers, should have the person of Jesus constantly before us, to inflame our love for him and to increase our knowledge of him. I wish to God that all my readers were enrolled as diligent scholars in Jesus's college, students of Corpus Christi, or the body of Christ, resolved to attain a good degree in the learning of the cross.

But to have Jesus always near, the heart must be full of him, welling up with his love, even to overflowing. Therefore, the apostle prays “that Christ may dwell in your hearts.” See how near he would have Jesus be! You cannot get a subject closer to you than to have it in the heart itself. “That he may dwell;” not that he might call on you sometimes, as a casual visitor enters a house and stays for a night, but that he may dwell; that Jesus may become the Lord and Tenant of your innermost being, never again to leave.

Observe the words—that he may dwell in your heart, that best room of the house of your being; not in your thoughts alone, but in your affections; not merely in the mind’s meditations, but in the heart’s emotions. We should yearn for a love for Christ of a most abiding character, not a love that flares up and then dies out into the darkness of a few embers, but a constant flame, fed by sacred fuel, like the fire on the altar that never went out.

This can only be accomplished by faith. Faith must be strong, or love will not be fervent; the root of the flower must be healthy, or we cannot expect the bloom to be sweet. Faith is the lily’s root, and love is the lily’s bloom. Now, reader, Jesus cannot be in your heart’s love unless you have a firm hold of him by your heart’s faith; and, therefore, pray that you may always trust Christ so that you may always love him. If love is cold, be sure that faith is drooping.