Keep Yourselves in the Love of God

The Flame

Thirty days ago this book began with thou hast left thy first love, honest naming of what had actually, genuinely cooled. It closes here, with keep yourselves in the love of God, an active, ongoing instruction, worth noticing this closing verb, keep, the same genuine, deliberate tending this whole final movement has been describing throughout.

Notice building up yourselves, praying in the Holy Ghost, both named as the actual, practical means this keeping requires, not passive hoping the flame simply remains, but active building, active praying, the concrete, ongoing practices this whole final movement’s exploration has been describing across its specific, practical days.

Look back over these thirty days, kindled, tested, carried, and notice they were never really separate seasons, but one continuous work, honest naming of first love, honest examination of what genuinely tests and cools it, and now, active, ongoing keeping, all of it building toward this closing, comprehensive instruction.

You began this book naming a first love left. You end it here, with the actual, practical instruction for keeping whatever love has since been rekindled, building, praying, keeping, active and ongoing, not once accomplished but continually, deliberately practiced, looking, as this verse closes, toward the mercy still, eventually, genuinely to come.