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It Takes Time, August 19
I the Lord do keep it; I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will
keep it night and day.
Isaiah 27:3
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The mind of a man or a woman does not come down in a moment from purity
and holiness to depravity, corruption, and crime. It takes time to transform the
human to the divine, or to degrade those formed in the image of God to the brutal
or the satanic. By beholding we become changed. Though formed in the image
of his Maker, man can so educate his mind that sin which he once loathed will
become pleasant to him. As he ceases to watch and pray, he ceases to guard the
citadel, the heart....Constant war against the carnal mind must be maintained; and
we must be aided by the refining influence of the grace of God, which will attract
the mind upward and habituate it to meditate upon pure and holy things.
Character does not come by chance. It is not determined by one outburst of
temper, one step in the wrong direction. It is the repetition of the act that causes
it to become habit, and molds the character either for good or for evil. Right
characters can be formed only by persevering, untiring effort, by improving every
entrusted talent and capability to the glory of God.
God expects us to build characters in accordance with the pattern set before
us. We are to lay brick by brick, adding grace to grace, finding our weak points
and correcting them in accordance with the directions given.
God gives us strength, reasoning power, time, in order that we may build
characters on which He can place His stamp of approval. He desires each child of
His to build a noble character, by the doing of pure, noble deeds, that in the end
he may present a symmetrical structure, a fair temple, honored by man and God....
He who would grow into a beautiful building for the Lord must cultivate every
power of the being. It is only by the right use of the talents that the character
can be developed harmoniously. Thus we bring to the foundation that which is
represented in the Word as gold, silver, precious stones—material that will stand
the test of God’s purifying fires.
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