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The Right Exercise of the Will, May 28
For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his
good pleasure.
Philippians 2:13
.
God’s promise is, “Ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall
search for me with all your heart.”
Jeremiah 29:13
.
The whole heart must be yielded to God, or the change can never be
wrought in us by which we are to be restored to His likeness.
Pure religion has to do with the will. The will is the governing
power in the nature of man, bringing all the other faculties under its
sway. The will is not the taste or the inclination, but it is the deciding
power which works in the children of men unto obedience to God or
unto disobedience.
The Saviour says, “Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all
that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.”
Luke 14:33
. Whatever shall
draw away the heart from God must be given up. Mammon is the idol of
many. The love of money, the desire for wealth, is the golden chain that
binds them to Satan. Reputation and worldly honor are worshiped by
another class. The life of selfish ease and freedom from responsibility is
the idol of others. But these slavish bands must be broken. We cannot
be half the Lord’s and half the world’s. We are not God’s children unless
we are such entirely....
Desires for goodness and holiness are right as far as they go; but if
you stop here, they will avail nothing. Many will be lost while hoping
and desiring to be Christians. They do not come to the point of yielding
the will to God. They do not now
choose
to be Christians.
The Lord does not propose to save us in companies. Individually we
are to make our choice. One by one we are to appropriate the grace of
God to the soul, and one cannot decide for another what course he shall
take.
A pure and noble life, a life of victory over appetite and lust, is
possible to everyone who will unite his weak, wavering human will to
the omnipotent, unwavering will of God.
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