Largeness of Heart.
We must seek a largeness of heart, allowing us to love as God loves and experience boundless liberty and sweetness.
F.B. Meyer emphasizes the need for a 'largeness of heart' to overcome the narrowness of our souls, which limits our capacity for love and understanding. He reflects on the idea that true freedom and joy come from aligning our will with God's, allowing us to love as He loves. Meyer cites the wisdom of Madame Guyon and Thomas a Kempis, highlighting that sin constricts our hearts, while divine love expands them. He calls upon God to grant us this expansive love, likening it to the vastness of the sea. Ultimately, the sermon encourages believers to seek a heart that mirrors God's boundless love for the world.
Text
Largeness of heart. 1 Kings iv. 29.
WE must all admit that our soul is too narrow. It holds too little, knows too little, is deficient in willpower, and, above all, in capacity of love; and when we are called to run in the way of God's commandments, we break down in despair, and cry, "If I am to be a runner, Thou must first enlarge my heart."
How little we know of the experience which Madame Guyon describes when she says: "This vastness or enlargedness, which is not bounded by anything, increases every day; so that my soul in partaking of the qualities of her Spouse seems also to partake of his immensity."
"There is," remarks one of the old Puritans, "a straitness, slavery, and narrowness, in all sin; sin crumples up our souls; which, if they were freely spread abroad, would be as large and wide as the whole universe. No man is truly free; but be that hath his will enlarged to the extent of God's will, by loving whatsoever God loves, and nothing else, he enjoys boundless liberty, and a boundless sweetness." God's love embraces the universe. He "so loved the world that He gave his only‑begotten Son." We who have partaken of the Divine nature must also love as He does.
Thomas a Kempis says, finally: "He who desires glory in things outside of God, or to take pleasure in some private good, shall many ways be encumbered and straitened; but if heavenly grace enter in, and true charity, there will be no envy, neither narrowness of heart, neither will self‑love busy itself, for Divine charity overcometh all things, and enlargeth all the powers of the soul." Give unto us, 0 God, this largeness of heart, even as the sand that is on the sea‑shore
Sermon Outline
- The Need for a Largeness of Heart
- The Experience of Enlargement
- The Nature of Sin
- The Liberating Power of Love
- God's love for the universe
- We must love as God loves
Key Quotes
“This vastness or enlargedness, which is not bounded by anything, increases every day; so that my soul in partaking of the qualities of her Spouse seems also to partake of his immensity.” — F.B. Meyer
“He who desires glory in things outside of God, or to take pleasure in some private good, shall many ways be encumbered and straitened;” — F.B. Meyer
“Divine charity overcometh all things, and enlargeth all the powers of the soul.” — F.B. Meyer
Application Points
- We must seek a largeness of heart, allowing us to love as God loves.
- Sin crumples up our souls, but loving as God loves can bring boundless liberty and sweetness.
- Divine charity can overcome all things and enlarge all the powers of our soul.