Filling Our Souls With God
Mary Wilder Tileston's sermon 'Filling Our Souls With God' emphasizes the importance of creating space in our souls for God's presence by rooting out selfish desires and making room for His great love.
Mary Wilder Tileston preaches about the importance of making room for God in our lives, drawing parallels to the story of Jesus' birth where there was no room for Him in the inn. She emphasizes that our souls are designed to be vast capacities for God, but often our selfish desires and personal interests take up the space meant for His love and presence. Tileston encourages rooting out these hindrances to create a chamber in our souls where the Divine Presence can dwell freely and abundantly.
Text
There was no room for them in the inn.
LUKE 2:7
GOD often would enrich, but finds not where to place His treasurer,--nor in hand nor heart a vacant space.
RICHARD CHENEVIX TRENCH
THE soul, in its highest sense, is a vast capacity for God. It is like a curious chamber added on to being, and somehow involving being, a chamber with elastic and contractile walls, which can be expanded, with God as its guest, illimitably, but which without God shrinks and shrivels until every vestige of the Divine is gone.
HENRY DRUMMOND
All that God desires is to give you His great love, so that it may dwell in you, and be the principle of your life and service; and all that withstands God's desire and His gift is the want of room for it, and for its free movement, when that room is taken up with yourselves and your little personal interests.
WILLIAM BERNARD ULLATHORNE
By rooting out our selfish desires, even when they appear to touch no one but ourselves, we are preparing a chamber of the soul where the Divine Presence may dwell.
ELLEN WATSON
Sermon Outline
- The Problem of a Full Soul
- The Solution to a Full Soul
- The Result of a Full Soul
- God's great love dwells in us
- We become the principle of life and service
Key Quotes
“The soul, in its highest sense, is a vast capacity for God.” — Mary Wilder Tileston
“All that God desires is to give you His great love, so that it may dwell in you, and be the principle of your life and service;” — Mary Wilder Tileston
Application Points
- Make a conscious effort to root out selfish desires and create space for God's love in your life.
- Recognize that God's great love is the principle of life and service, and allow it to guide you.
- Prepare a chamber of the soul for God's presence by letting go of personal interests and making room for His love.