Growing Up Into Christ
47
and communion of the soul with Christ. The pleasures of the world,
life’s cares and perplexities and sorrows, the faults of others, or your
own faults and imperfections—to any or all of these he will seek to
divert the mind. Do not be misled by his devices. Many who are really
conscientious, and who desire to live for God, he too often leads to
dwell upon their own faults and weaknesses, and thus by separating
them from Christ he hopes to gain the victory. We should not make
[72]
self the center and indulge anxiety and fear as to whether we shall be
saved. All this turns the soul away from the Source of our strength.
Commit the keeping of your soul to God, and trust in Him. Talk and
think of Jesus. Let self be lost in Him. Put away all doubt; dismiss
your fears. Say with the apostle Paul, “I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth
in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of
the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.”
Galatians
2:20
. Rest in God. He is able to keep that which you have committed
to Him. If you will leave yourself in His hands, He will bring you off
more than conqueror through Him that has loved you.
When Christ took human nature upon Him, He bound humanity to
Himself by a tie of love that can never be broken by any power save
the choice of man himself. Satan will constantly present allurements
to induce us to break this tie—to choose to separate ourselves from
Christ. Here is where we need to watch, to strive, to pray, that nothing
may entice us to choose another master; for we are always free to do
this. But let us keep our eyes fixed upon Christ, and He will preserve
us. Looking unto Jesus, we are safe. Nothing can pluck us out of
His hand. In constantly beholding Him, we “are changed into the
same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.”
2
Corinthians 3:18
.
It was thus that the early disciples gained their likeness to the dear
Saviour. When those disciples heard the words of Jesus, they felt their
need of Him. They sought, they found, they followed Him. They were
[73]
with Him in the house, at the table, in the closet, in the field. They
were with Him as pupils with a teacher, daily receiving from His lips
lessons of holy truth. They looked to Him, as servants to their master,
to learn their duty. Those disciples were men “subject to like passions
as we are.”
James 5:17
. They had the same battle with sin to fight.
They needed the same grace, in order to live a holy life.