Chapter 209—For Those Who Seek
I am the Lord your God; ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye
shall be holy; for I am holy.
Leviticus 11:44
.
It is the glory of God to give His virtue to His children. He desires to see
men and women reaching the highest standard; and when by faith they lay
hold of the power of Christ, when they plead His unfailing promises, and
claim them as their own, when with an importunity that will not be denied
they seek for the power of the Holy Spirit, they will be made complete in
Him....
Before the believer is held out the wonderful possibility of being like
Christ, obedient to all the principles of the law. But of himself man is utterly
unable to reach this condition. The holiness that God’s Word declares he
must have before he can be saved is the result of the working of divine
grace as he bows in submission to the discipline and restraining influences
of the Spirit of truth. Man’s obedience can be made perfect only by the
incense of Christ’s righteousness, which fills with divine fragrance every
act of obedience. The part of the Christian is to persevere in overcoming
every fault. Constantly he is to pray to the Saviour to heal the disorders of
his sin-sick soul. He has not the wisdom or the strength to overcome; these
belong to the Lord, and He bestows them on those who in humiliation and
contrition seek Him for help.
The Holy Spirit will be given to those who seek for its power and grace
and will help our infirmities when we would have an audience with God.
Heaven is open to our petitions, and we are invited to come “boldly unto the
throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time
of need” (
Hebrews 4:16
). We are to come in faith, believing that we shall
obtain the very things we ask of Him.
If you have a sense of need in your soul, if you hunger and thirst after
righteousness, this is an evidence that Christ has wrought upon your heart, in
order that He may be sought unto to do for you, through the endowment of
the Holy Spirit, those things which it is impossible for you to do for yourself.
If we will empty the soul of self, He will supply all our necessities.
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