(The Danger of Returning to Experience and the Fullness Found in Christ)
May 1 brings the believer into a needed correction: the life is not sustained by past moments of inspiration, but by present relation—and that relation is not partial, but fully satisfying in Christ.
1. The Subtle Return to Experience
Chambers writes:
“If we continually try to bring back those exceptional moments of inspiration, it is a sign that it is not God we want.” (My Utmost for His Highest)
Chambers exposes a refined form of misdirection.
Moments of clarity, intensity, or deep awareness of God may mark the life. But when those moments become the object—something to recover, repeat, or recreate—the focus has shifted.
The life turns backward.
Instead of remaining in present relation, it seeks to return to what has already passed. The experience becomes the reference point, rather than the One who gave it.
This reveals the issue.
It is not God himself who is being sought, but the state once felt.
But God does not give himself through repetition of moments. He is known in living relation, not in recalled experience.
To remain is not to return, but to continue.
2. The Fullness Found in Christ
Spurgeon writes:
“The rose is delightful to the eye, and its scent is pleasant and refreshing. So each of the senses of the soul… finds appropriate gratification in Jesus.” (Morning and Evening)
Spurgeon directs attention to the sufficiency of Christ.
He is not partial in what he supplies. The life that is in relation to him does not lack variety, depth, or satisfaction. Every aspect of the inward life finds its answer in him.
This is not external fulfillment.
It is inward correspondence.
The soul does not need to reach beyond him for what satisfies—it finds in him what meets every capacity of the life given by God.
Christ is not one source among many. He is the fullness.
3. Where the Two Meet: Not Returning to Moments, but Remaining in Him
These truths meet in a single clarity.
The life does not need to return to past moments because what those moments pointed to remains present. What was glimpsed in intensity is now to be lived in continuity.
The desire to recreate experience gives way to remaining in Christ.
What was once felt is now known as source.
The fullness that was briefly perceived is not lost—it is entered more steadily as the life remains in him.
There is no need to recover the moment when the life remains in the One
who gave it.
4. Pastoral Orientation
May 1 calls for steadiness and clarity.
Do not seek to return to past moments of inspiration. Remain in present relation to God.
Do not look beyond Christ for fulfillment. Find your life fully in him.
As you continue walking “after the spirit,” you will find that what once came in moments becomes steady as you remain—and that Christ himself is sufficient for every part of the life.
Do not go back. Remain.
And you will discover a life that is not sustained by memory, but lived in the fullness of Christ himself.