Richard Baxter, an English churchman and theologian of the 1600s, expected to die before his 36th birthday. He had had a total collapse which confined him to his bed. That’s when he began to do some serious thinking about his future, “to meditate on heaven’s joys as part of his preparation for leaving this world,” as J.I. Packer put it. Baxter then spent 30 minutes a day in meditation. In his book, The Saints’ Everlasting Rest, Baxter wrote, “If thou wouldst have light and heat, why art thou no more in the sunshine?”
We want the light and the heat without taking time to bask in the sunshine! And when it comes to the presence of the Almighty there is no substitute. You can get an artificial suntan by lying under a heat lamp and you can have heat today without generating fire. But when it comes to our relationship with God, there is nothing in the entire world which serves as an adequate substitute.
If you want light and heat, find time to be in the sunshine. Baxter said you need 30 minutes a day, and a person may well have been able to find 30 minutes in 17th century England, but few can squeeze in that amount of time today.
I’m working on this discipline as I have fought for moments to be in the presence of the Almighty and have enough sanity when I get there to stay focused on Him for the duration of even five minutes. But as you and I are discovering, the rewards are well worth the effort. Keep on communing with Him each day.