Basic HTML Version
Christian Perfection, July 23
Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you
faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy.
Jude 1:24
.
There is a real work to be wrought in us. Constantly we must submit our will
to God’s will, our way to God’s way. Our peculiar ideas will strive constantly for
the supremacy, but we must make God all and in all. We are not free from the
failings of humanity, but we must constantly strive to be free from these failings,
not to be perfect in our own eyes, but perfect in every good work. We must not
dwell on the dark side. Our souls must not rest in self, but in the One who is all
and in all.
By beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, we are actually to be changed
into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. We
expect too little, and we receive according to our faith. We are not to cling to our
own ways, our own plans, our own ideas; we are to be transformed by the renewing
of our minds, that we may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will
of God. Besetting sins are to be conquered, and evil habits overcome. Wrong
dispositions and feelings are to be rooted out, and holy tempers and emotions
begotten in us by the Spirit of God.
This the Word of God explicitly teaches, but the Lord cannot work in us to
will and to do of His good pleasure unless we crucify self, with the affections
and lusts, at every step. If we try to work in our own way, we shall grievously
fail.... We have a great work to do, and if we are laborers together with God, the
ministering angels will cooperate with us in the work.... Then let us lay hold of
this mighty power by living faith, praying and believing, trusting and working.
Then God will do that which only God can do....
Self is the most difficult thing we have to manage. In laying off burdens, let
us not forget to lay self at the feet of Christ. Hand yourself over to Jesus, to be
molded and fashioned by Him, that you may be made vessels unto honor. Your
temptations, your ideas, your feelings, must all be laid at the foot of the cross.
Then the soul is ready to listen to words of divine instruction. Jesus will give
you to drink of the water which flows from the river of God. Under the softening
and subduing influence of His Spirit your coldness and listlessness will disappear.
Christ will be in you a well of water, springing up into everlasting life....
Let the sanctifying power of truth be expressed in your life and revealed in your
character. Let Christ mold you, as clay is molded in the hands of the potter.—
Letter
57, July 23, 1887
, to J. H. Durland and A. A. John, workers in England.
[219]
220