ENCOURAGEMENT FOR PASTORS (BY SPURGEON) LOOK TO GOD FIRST

The earth brings forth according to the period of the year, and with man, there is a time for every purpose under heaven. At this season, the world is engaged in congratulating itself and in expressing its complimentary wishes for the good of its citizens; let me suggest extra and more solid work for Christians.

As we think today of the birth of the Savior, let us aspire after a fresh birth of the Savior in our hearts; that as he is already “formed in us the hope of glory,” we may be “renewed in the spirit of our minds;” that we may go again to the Bethlehem of our spiritual nativity and do our first works, enjoy our first loves, and feast with Jesus as we did in the holy, happy, heavenly days of our conversion. 

Let us go to Jesus with something of that youthful freshness and excessive delight which was so manifest in us when we looked to him at first; let him be crowned anew by us, for he is still adorned with the dew of his youth, and remains “the same yesterday, today, and forever.”