How to Think of God
To truly know God, we must think of Christ and see His tenderness, mercy, and goodness.
Mary Wilder Tileston preaches about how God shines His light in our hearts to reveal the knowledge of His glory through Jesus Christ. She emphasizes that Christ bore our griefs and sorrows, showing us the tender, merciful, and good nature of God. Tileston explains that God's purpose in allowing sorrows and difficulties is to shape us into His likeness, teaching us to find happiness in serving and sacrificing for others, just as Christ did.
Text
God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
2 CORINTHIANS 4:6
Surely, He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows.
ISAIAH 53:4
THE way to think of God so as to know Him, is to think of Christ. Then we see Him, and can understand how tender and merciful and good He is. We see that if He sends us sorrows and difficulties, He only sends them because they are the true blessings, the things that are truly good. He would have us like Himself, with a happiness like His own, and nothing below it; and so as His own happiness is in taking sorrow and infirmity, and ever assisting, and giving and sacrificing Himself, He gives us sorrows too, and weaknesses, which are not the evils that we think them, but are what we should be most happy in, if we were perfect and had knowledge like Him. So there is a use and a service in all we bear, in all we do, which we do not know, but which He knows, and which in Christ He shows to us. It is a use for others, a hidden use, but one which makes all our life rich, and that richest which is most like Christ's.
JAMES HINTON
Sermon Outline
- The Source of Knowledge of God
- The Way to Think of God
- The Purpose of Suffering
- The Service in All We Bear
- There is a hidden use in all we do
- It makes our life rich and like Christ's
Key Quotes
“The way to think of God so as to know Him, is to think of Christ.” — Mary Wilder Tileston
“He would have us like Himself, with a happiness like His own, and nothing below it;” — Mary Wilder Tileston
Application Points
- Recognize that sorrows and difficulties are true blessings that help you become like Christ.
- Look for the hidden use in all you bear, which makes your life rich and like Christ's.
- Be willing to take on sorrows and weaknesses, just like Christ, to have happiness like His own.