Everyday Life: September 2016
Table of Contents
Everyday Life
Everyday life is God’s training ground to teach us to be like Christ. Some lessons take a lifetime to learn, and so the lesson may be repeated thousands of times in the everyday circumstances in life. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance. The Spirit works in the garden of everyday life to produce the fruit for God’s eternal pleasure.
Thirty of the thirty-three and a half years of the Lord’s perfect life were spent in the quiet activities of everyday life, the adult ones as a carpenter in a small town. When He entered public life, what others said was simply, “Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary?” Yet about the same time God’s statement about Him is, “Thou art My beloved Son, in Thee I have found My delight” (Mark 1:12 JND). He was a delight from all eternity, and He was a delight to the Father’s heart in the perfect way in which He lived His quiet, obscure daily life from birth to manhood. May our everyday lives be a delight to the heart of our Lord Jesus.
The Artist’s Boy
Some years ago there lived and worked in Italy a great artist in mosaics. His skill was wonderful. With bits of glass and stone he could produce the most striking works of art, works that were valued at thousands of pounds.
In his workshop was a poor little boy whose business it was to clean up the floor and tidy up the room after the day’s work was done. He was a quiet little fellow, and he always did his work well. That was all the artist knew about him.
One day he came to his master and asked timidly, “Please, master, may I have for my own the bits of glass you throw upon the floor?”
“Why, yes,” said the artist. “The bits are good for nothing. Do as you please with them.”
Day after day, then, the child might have been seen studying the broken pieces on the floor, laying some on one side and throwing others away. He was a faithful little servant, and so year by year went by and saw him still in the workshop.
One day his master entered a storeroom little used, and in looking round he came upon a piece of work carefully hidden behind the rubbish. He brought it to light and, to his surprise, found it to be a noble work of art nearly finished. He gazed at it in speechless amazement.
“What great artist can have hidden his work in my study?” he cried.
At that moment the young servant entered the door. He stopped short on seeing his master, and when he saw the work in his hands a deep dye flushed his face.
“What is this?” cried the artist. “Tell me what great artist has hidden his masterpiece here!”
“Oh, master!” faltered the astonished boy. “It is only my poor work. You know you said I might have the broken bits you threw away.”
The child having the artist soul had gathered up the fragments and patiently, lovingly wrought them into a wonderful work of art.
Do you catch the hint? Gather up the bits of time and opportunity lying about and patiently work out your life mosaic — a masterpiece by the grace of God. God does not give many of us great things to do, but it is the odds and ends of everyday life which He sets us to pick up and make morally beautiful and glorious. “Gather up the fragments ... that nothing be lost” (John 6:12).
Are we doing it, day by day? When we stand before the judgment seat of Christ, to give an account of what we did with our life here, what answer shall we be able to give if He asks us, “How many baskets full of fragments took ye up?” (Mark 8:20).
“He gave authority to His servants, and to every man his work” (Mark 13:34).
From To Every Man His Work
Guidance
Some of you have been exercised lately, I believe, about how you may know the will of God in matters of everyday life. It is a very blessed thing to acknowledge God in the very smallest detail of our lives.
“In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths” (Prov. 3:6).
We are to do this, not only in the big undertakings, but also in all the little things as well. God is deeply interested in them all, and He delights to be consulted by His children about all their doings. I am sure that if we were always to “acknowledge” God, we would get on better and happier than we often do.
I knew a Christian girl, a dressmaker, who was one of those that consulted God about her everyday life. She had a hard employer to serve, and there were constant difficulties cropping up about ladies’ dresses in her daily employment.
“I just tell God about them,” she said, “and it’s wonderful the deliverances I receive. I ask His help and guidance in meeting with customers, and He always gives it.”
No wonder she was kept peaceful and happy. I remember a young engineer telling me that every time he moved the handle of his engine to draw up men from the coal pit, he lifted up his heart to God for guidance, and by this means he was kept in dependence on God all the day long.
I know worldly people, and some Christians too, smile at this. They think it weak and childish; they would rather “use their wits” in these things. Very well, let them do so; one day they will come to their “wit’s end,” as the Bible says (see Psalm 107:27); then they will be cast on God.
In all things on which God has spoken in His Word, it is ours to obey promptly. But there are thousands of details in our daily lives for which we have no “chapter and verse” command, and in these we are to “acknowledge” Him, seeking His guidance and watching with a single eye to see His hand open up a pathway for us. When you need a job, a suit of clothes, a seat on a plane, a parking space, tell God about it; everything is in His hand, under His control, and He can — and will if He sees fit — cause every created thing to serve His trusting saints.
Ask counsel of the Lord when you are in doubt, and faithful is the word: ”Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in Him; and He shall bring it to pass” (Psa. 37:5).
Christian Truth
Do We Recognize God in the Circumstances of Daily Life?
It is worth-while, in our reading of the Scriptures, to observe the presence and working of God in the ordinary affairs of everyday life. For instance, in Genesis 37, Joseph is seen on his way to visit his brethren in obedience to his father’s command but is unable to find them. It is said, “A certain man found him, and, behold, he was wandering in the field.”
It so happened that the “certain man” had heard Joseph’s brethren say they were going to Dothan, and thus he was able to direct Joseph on his way. Now, what believer would dare to say that the finding and directing of Joseph as here recorded happened by chance and that God had nothing to do with the “certain man” finding him in that field?
Great events often spring from seemingly small and unexpected causes and from what seem to us trivial and commonplace things. When we “know as we are known” and understand fully the working of God in the lives of those who trust Him, we shall be filled with wonder to know how constantly He was present, though often unknown to ourselves, and how much and how continually we were indebted to Him. There is great truth in the words of the poet:
“He everywhere hath sway
And all things serve His might.”
When David was pursuing the Amalekites who had smitten Ziklag, an Egyptian, apparently dead, was found in the field (1 Sam. 30:11). This man, after being restored, was able to give David the information he needed to enable him to overtake the Amalekites and recover all they had taken away. God used this weak and apparently impossible instrument to promote the victory of David by giving him directions.
We do well to ponder these simple narratives and observe the ways of God’s working in everyday life. It is blind unbelief to limit the presence of God to that which is called miraculous and supernatural, and not to see and trust Him in the things which we call commonplace and ordinary.
It is a matter of divine revelation that God commanded the ravens to bring Elijah bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening. Yet God was not more truly present in providing for His servant then and there in the time of famine than He is in commanding the needful provision here and now; it may be in a time of plenty and by means of very ordinary circumstances.
God’s Deliverances
We cannot read with an open eye of the needs of God’s people in Scripture without reading of the way in which God supplied them. Sometimes those needs were very apparent and were even allowed occasionally to become urgent before they were met. But God in giving a record of the trials of His saints does not leave us without an account of their deliverances. Thus the generations of His children that follow are able to say, as they study the record, “Our fathers trusted in Thee: they trusted, and Thou didst deliver them” (Psa. 22:4).
The Word of God is rich in its faithful record of various kinds of temporal deliverances, and not a few of these are celebrated in thankful songs of praise. Further, these deliverances are by no means written for the sake of those for whom those deliverances were wrought, but for all those who in time to come should read or be instructed by these divinely inspired records, and thereby encouraged to put their trust in God, for God has not retired to the heavens, having left the world to itself, or His people to themselves in the days in which we live. It must strike an unbeliever as somewhat singular to hear a Christian singing heartily about the salvation of his soul, and yet soon afterward to discern in his anxious, careworn appearance, and perhaps in his speech too, a lack of confidence in God about the living present. It is not according to Scripture that such matters as God’s care for the soul and His present care for the body should be divorced in that way.
God’s Presence and Protection
“He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” (Rom. 8:32). “Who giveth [not gave] us richly all things to enjoy” (1 Tim. 6:17).
God is present with His children for many purposes, but not only so, for the Apostle was able to tell heathen men — applying the words both to heathen and Christian — “Though He be not far from every one of us: for in Him we live, and move, and have our being” (Acts 17:27-28).
Take an illustration of the way in which God is near His people to protect them. “There came a messenger unto Saul, saying, Haste thee, and come; for the Philistines have invaded the land. Wherefore Saul returned from pursuing after David, and went against the Philistines: therefore they called that place Sela-hammahlekoth [that is, the rock of divisions or escape]. And David went up from thence” (1 Sam. 23:27-29).
Saul was pressing David very close. It seemed as if Saul had captured his long pursued quarry on this occasion, for “Saul and his men compassed David and his men round about to take them” (v. 26). But suddenly a messenger appeared, saying to Saul, “Haste thee, and come.” Saul was called away, and thus one of the spots of David’s greatest danger became a monumental place of divine deliverance. In all this the believer sees God’s intervention in David’s escape. Are there not places in our own experience over which we too might write as truly as these Hebrews did, the long and difficult word, “Sela-hammahlekoth”?
God was no more David’s deliverer than He is in these days the deliverer of those who put their trust in Him. Let us not forget the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, “The very hairs of your head are all numbered.”
God’s Provision
Again, God is present with His people to provide for them. We read of the disciples of Jesus on one occasion that “they reasoned among themselves, saying, It is because we have taken no bread. Which when Jesus perceived, He said unto them, O ye of little faith, why reason ye among yourselves, because ye have brought no bread? Do ye not yet understand, neither remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets ye took up? Neither the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how many baskets ye took up?” (Matt. 16:7-9).
Jesus had wrought two miracles, in both of which He had shown how fully competent He was to satisfy the hungry with bread in places where there was none. Did He not expect these disciples to learn from these miracles that He was all-sufficient for every emergency? He is the Creator. He asks us to trust Him when we have no bread, and not to be overcome by difficulties like the one we read of here, which His disciples were unable to master. It is His will that we should “understand” and “remember” (and may divine grace accomplish this in us!) that while man thinks he can prepare a table in a land of plenty, God can prepare a “table in the wilderness.”
If we have what seems like needs unmet or difficulties unremoved, it is certainly not because God is unable to deal with these if He chooses. The Lord on this occasion said to the disciples, “O ye of little faith,” and He says to us today, “Be ... content with such things as ye have: for He hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee” (Heb. 13:5-6).
But God often works for His people, not only to provide for them, to protect them, and to save them out of danger, but also to prevent them from entering into danger or temptation and from falling into sin. Oh, may we be more ready to observe His wise direction in our daily circumstances, to see His faithful care, to heed the little warnings when we deviate from the path of His guidance, and to bless Him for all!
Christian Truth (adapted)
Dead and Risen With Christ
Let us now stop and ask ourselves, “What has my mind been occupied with today? What has it been running after?” Could you say, “The word of Christ has dwelt in me richly”? Perhaps we have been occupied with politics, perhaps with the town talk, or with something of our own. Has the word of our own heart, the word of our own mind, filled up the greater part of our day? That is not Christ. “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom” (Col. 3:16). All knowledge is in Him, and all practical wisdom. They are distinct things, but if they are real, they go wonderfully together. Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. This, then, is what is looked for, that in this condition there be the unfolding and development of the blessed knowledge of Christ. The Spirit of God takes of the things of Christ and shows them unto us. We live in that sphere in which God unfolds His own mind.
First, the root of all is Christ as the life. Then, we pass over to the outward conduct in the man’s walk. And let me remark that, while a person may be walking outwardly uprightly and blamelessly, it may be very feebly as a Christian and without spirituality. You will find many a true Christian who has Christ as his life, and with nothing to reproach him as to his walk, and yet has no spirituality whatever. If you talk to him about Christ, there is nothing that answers. There is, between the life that is at the bottom and the blamelessness that is at the top, between him and Christ, a whole host of affections and objects that are not Christ at all. How much of the day, or of the practice of your soul, is filled up with Christ? How far is He the one object of your heart? When you come to pray to God, do you never get to a point where you shut the door against Him? where there is some reserve, some single thing in your heart, that you keep back from Him? If we pray for blessing up to a certain point only, there is reserve; Christ is not all practically to us.
J. N. Darby (adapted)
Everyday Tasks - Lackluster or Joyful?
More than 100 years ago, a philosopher at Harvard University in the U.S.A. wrote a book entitled The Philosophy of Loyalty. In his book, Josiah Royce explored the reasons why simply existing — being fed, housed, kept safe and alive — are empty and meaningless to human beings. It is true that we need all of those things, but he found that a basic human need was to have a cause beyond ourselves. There is no reason to believe that he was a true Christian, so that the causes for him were multiple — one’s family, one’s country, an important principle, a building project, or even the care of a pet. He used the term “loyalty” to describe a cause beyond ourselves, and in ascribing value to that cause, we are willing to sacrifice for it and find meaning in our lives.
As natural human beings, we tend to put ourselves first — our existence, our pleasures, our needs. But carried to an extreme, this makes us very unhappy, for the person who is occupied with himself is never happy for very long. The interesting conclusion to which Royce came was that the cause outside of ourselves need not, in itself, produce what the world calls happiness; often the sacrifice may rather produce pain. But the cause gives meaning to our life and produces satisfaction, if not happiness. Many have found this out, even apart from Christianity.
John D. Rockefeller
John D. Rockefeller Sr. made a fortune in business, but by the time he was in his early fifties, his health had broken, he had lost all his hair and even his eyebrows, and he could eat only bread and milk. Every newspaper in the U.S.A. had his obituary ready to run, for they expected him to die in a short time. But then he began to use his vast fortune for others; he felt the joy of a cause outside of himself. He built libraries, high schools, and universities, funded medical research, and supported many other good projects. His health returned, and he lived to the ripe old age of 98.
“the Lights Turned on”
More recently, a doctor by the name of Bill Thomas introduced animals (cats, dogs, birds, rabbits, and laying hens) into the lives of nursing home residents in New Berlin, New York, U.S.A. He also introduced live indoor plants, a vegetable and flower garden, and an after-school program for children, connected to the nursing home. The effect on residents was dramatic, for it was they who took on most of the care of all these things. They now had an interest outside of themselves. The need for medication decreased by 60%, the number of deaths fell by 15%, and as one observer put it, “The lights turned back on in people’s eyes.”
The Meaning of Life
Many hundreds of years before, in the Book of Ecclesiastes, Solomon explored the question of the meaning of life, looking with all his human wisdom. Although he is forced to conclude over and over again, “All is vanity,” yet he ends up by directing our thoughts outside of ourselves. “Moreover, because the preacher was wise, he still taught the people knowledge” (Eccl. 12:9), and then, “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep His commandments” (Eccl. 12:13). Even without an eternal view, the responsibility to others and to God Himself was felt.
As Solomon himself recognizes, man was made for eternity, not merely for time. “He hath set the world [eternity] in their heart” (Eccl. 3:11), he tells us. Thus a reference merely to that which is “under the sun” will not answer the longing of man’s heart, for he longs for more. A cause outside of himself in this world may sustain him for a time, but then there is always the thought that eventually “I should leave it unto the man that shall be after me. And who knoweth whether he shall be a wise man or a fool?” (Eccl. 2:18-19). Another may well squander what we have worked so hard to achieve. What then is the answer?
The Light of Christianity
Under the full light of Christianity, we can find a meaning to all of our existence in this world, even in the most menial and commonplace tasks of everyday life. These duties may be repetitive and sometimes difficult, yet God has given us the supreme object outside of ourselves — a risen Christ in glory. When our blessed Lord was about to ascend to glory, He could say to His disciples, “As My Father hath sent Me, even so send I you” (John 20:21). He has left us here to look after His interests in this world and to do all to His glory. Paul could say to the Corinthians, “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Cor. 10:31). We notice that this includes such necessary and repetitive actions as eating and drinking; it is all to be done for One outside of ourselves. Here is a motive higher than anything else, transcending a principle, a human hero, a country, or anything else in this world. God has set before us the inestimable privilege of serving Him down here, and it is often in the situations of everyday life that He is most glorified.
Paul’s Instruction to Slaves
The epitome of all this is seen in Paul’s instruction to slaves in the Roman world — those whose lives belonged completely to a worldly master, and most likely to one who was not a believer. Yet Paul could tell them the same thing he told the Corinthians, “Whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men ... for ye serve the Lord Christ” (Col. 3:23-24). The earthly master might give the commands and assign the job, yet they were to do it “as to the Lord.” What an uplifting thought! If the Lord Himself were to ask us to do something difficult or tedious, would we not readily do it for the One who loved us and gave Himself for us? Even so we are to regard all of our duties down here as if they were done for Him.
Eternal Reward
More than this, there is not merely temporal joy in our hearts when we have Christ before us in everyday life. No, there is also eternal reward. In the same verse, Paul reminds those slaves that “of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance” (Col. 3:24). The inheritance is all created things, and one day we shall share it with Christ. If we find ourselves in a humble position down here, having little or nothing in this world, we can rest assured that one day we will own it all with Christ; it will be His reward for faithfulness in our everyday responsibilities down here. Nor is there any chance of someone’s spoiling our work, for what is done for Christ, according to God’s Word, will last for all eternity. “He that doeth the will of God abideth forever” (1 John 2:17). Solomon feared that those who came after him might not value his work, but God will give a reward that is for all eternity.
But all this can be only if we accept our circumstances from the Lord and walk in His strength. Human energy will break down, but the enjoyment of Christ in our hearts will not only give us a cause outside of ourselves, but also an Object that fills our hearts. Christ will fill our hearts for all eternity; surely He is able to fill them now!
W. J. Prost
Spiritual Conflict
Liberty Leads to Conflict
We will speak of the conflict which, in greater or lesser intensity, every believer has to go through daily. It is not the struggle for deliverance of soul that now is to occupy us, nor the conflict which is against Satan, wrestling with spiritual wickedness in heavenly places, but the inward conflict in the child of God.
It may be said, If a man knows his sins to be forgiven, and more than this, knows liberty (which some call “sanctification,” “higher life,” “full peace,” and so forth), then, surely, every spiritual desire must be gratified, and thenceforward, till heaven be gained, there can be nothing more to be wished for. In things spiritual, as in things natural, when children have grown up to manhood, to ripe age, or, as Scripture speaks, are “perfect,” they do not find that thenceforward there is nothing to do, nothing to suffer. Quite the contrary; in one sense they may be said to begin life only when “perfect,” for at that point when liberty is attained, conflict is acutely entered into.
Greater Power for the Believer Than Against Him
Greater power exists for the believer than against him. The believer knew the bitterness of inward strife before he knew his standing in Christ risen, but having been brought into liberty, he is subject to conflict. But there is a vast difference between the character of the conflict in the believer who is in liberty and in him who is in bondage. The difference is this: Before he knew himself to be in Christ, the believer was like a helpless cripple in the clutch of a giant; after his deliverance, having the Spirit as power to deal with sin in him, the Spirit within him is stronger than his flesh. Notice, we do not say that the believer is stronger in himself than he was, but that the Spirit in him is power. And by the Spirit’s power he overcomes.
Before we were brought into Christian liberty, the power of the indwelling Spirit was not known, but being delivered from self, we are in the moral position which should gain the victory. Not that the position itself is victory; it is the vantage ground for victory, for victory is obtained by the Spirit.
The Spirit of God Searches Us
The Holy Spirit who dwells within us knows our hearts. When He has taken up His abode in the child of God, He does not suffer the child to pursue his own course through this world. The child of God has his natural inclinations, his tastes, his wishes; he is the same person, with the same tendencies as before. His nature is unchanged; it is the identical selfish or vain or rash or timeserving nature as before. He may be beset with the sins of love of money or ease or applause. His new birth does not correct his old nature, with which he came into this world, but the Spirit of God, who at the first made him feel what he was by the Word and produced in him repentance, gives the Word effect in his everyday life, cleansing and purifying and causing self-judgment by its means.
The Spirit of God dwelling within us stimulates the desires of the holy nature which He has implanted in us. He leads to humility, gentleness and courage, and all in a divine way. We do not mean such qualities apart from God, which in that case may be merely traits of human nature.
When our flesh stirs us up to desire its old things, the Spirit of God does not remain passive in us, but occasions conflict within: “The flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these things are opposed one to the other: in order that ye should not do those things which ye desire” (Gal. 5:17 JND). He restrains the believer from doing the things which the flesh likes and constrains him to do the things which God loves, and He effects this by acting upon the new man.
The believer is not, and never will be, free from having sin in him in this world; nor will he be free from the danger of committing any kind of evil. He is never practically safe except when he feels his weakness and walks in the dependence of faith in God. Should he say, “I cannot help doing evil,” then he denies the Spirit of God in him as the power for holy living and remains in the mire of wrongdoing. Should he say, “I am holy or spiritual or heavenly” and in his heart thinks of what he is in himself, then it is self at work in another and more dangerous form; he has denied the Spirit of God in His power to produce holiness, spirituality and heavenly-mindedness. This last is worse than the first. The first is unbelief in God; the last, belief in self. The truth is, There is constant conflict proceeding within the child of God, and the Spirit is continually restraining from evil, as well as leading to good, and truth is the effect of the work of the Spirit of truth.
The Spirit Is Opposed
to the Flesh
The Spirit dwells in us, and in our flesh dwells no good thing. We have been called to liberty, to be free before God — not to be satisfied with or to give way to ourselves. This condition of liberty is to be used for God; the flesh is not to be allowed to place the believer again under religious ordinances or law; neither is it to be allowed to run in its own evil likings of a base sort. Liberty is to be used for serving God and walking before Him. Divinely-given liberty is marked by humility and holiness, by peace and joy.
The flesh in its pride would say, “I can live to God by means of law-keeping and religious observances”; the flesh in its lusts would say, “I am safe for eternity, and thus can live for myself.” The new life God has given us has no affinity for either the one or the other of these evils, and the Spirit of God opposes the flesh in each.
The Way of Victory
The way of victory in everyday life for the believer is solely by the power of the Spirit, and the first step on the way is putting to death the deeds of the body. There are evil things to which we naturally incline; it is the pleasure of our old Adam nature to commit specific bad and sinful deeds. The members of our bodies are the servants of our desires; we have absolutely to refuse and put to death those activities, and the power for this action is the Spirit who dwells in us.
The tree itself God has cut down judicially in the cross of His Son; this truth is not affected by our daily walk. What we are as men in the flesh, God has judged and condemned in Christ when occupying our place, but we have grave responsibility before God as to our ways, and we have to cut off the sprouts of the tree. Sin is in us, and we have continually to keep the shoots down or they will become branches. “If ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live” (Rom. 8:13). No natural power can put to death the results of nature; the Spirit of God is the believer’s only force to effect this great end.
Having the divine nature, the child of God abhors the evil, and the indwelling Spirit of God is his strength for refusing evil and for doing good. The Scriptures set before us this power of the Spirit of God affecting our every detail of life. The deeds of the body may be those of the gross kind or those of a more subtle nature, but still the Spirit of God gives the strength enabling the child of God to get the victory.
The Spirit is opposed to the conceptions of our evil hearts, and by Him we subdue and slay our evil actions. Living to God, practically speaking, does not take place in the believer’s life on earth unless he sets aside the ways of his flesh. We say practically, for, as we have shown, the life which we have is in the Son of God, and secure before God, hid with Christ, but having the new life and living out the new life in these mortal bodies are widely different facts.
Spiritual Prosperity
Spiritual prosperity depends greatly upon spiritual weeding. Cost what it may, the weeding must be done, else there will be no golden harvest. Children, when they see poppies and other weed flowers among the grain, may say, “How pretty they look!” but every weed sucks strength from the harvest. Weeding is not done once only for a lifetime, but is a continuous and laborious work, and weeds increase according to soil and seasons. Some soils and seasons make weeds grow with terrible rapidity. So it is with the believer, but get rid of the weeds he must. He cannot get rid of the soil, his flesh, in which no good thing dwells; he cannot free himself of sin in him, but by the Spirit of God he can put the weeds to death as they come up, and he can avoid giving way to what it is natural to him to do.
The flesh produces weeds more rapidly than the sourest land, and, at times, the devil and circumstances favor their rapacious growth in such a way that the strength of the soul seems eaten up, but “if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.” There seem to be times for special kinds of evil growths among Christians generally; Satan is permitted to make certain assaults on the prosperity of souls in different ages. Thus we find that the difficulties disturbing believers are frequently of the same sort over large sections of Christendom. While men sleep Satan sows his evil seed, hence the need of constant prayerful watchfulness in each child of God for what may be springing up in his own soul. Laxity or indifference as to the truth of the Scriptures and laxity or indifference as to morals are prevalent weeds of these our times.
Though weeding is toilsome and heart-breaking work, it is the only way to spiritual prosperity, and let us remember that as old fields that have been cultivated many years grow weeds as well as new ones, so it does not matter how old a Christian may be; he is always to be putting to death the deeds of his body. There is no safety from sinning unless we walk according to God, whether we be young or old.
The endeavor to live to God will cause deep heart-searchings and conflict in each individual believer. It will cause work as painful to self as it is judicial, but it is written, “They that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts” (Gal. 5:24).
Victory over our ways introduces us to, as well as springs from, the enjoyment of the presence of Christ. The deeds our natural hearts delight in caused our Lord His cross and suffering for us. He was crucified, and being risen with Him, it is our privilege to reckon ourselves to be alive unto God and to put to death those members of our bodies which are sin. The Spirit of God is our only power for this end.
H. F. Witherby (adapted)
Our Standing in Grace
We must learn what God is to us, not by our own thoughts, but by what He has revealed Himself to be, and that is, “The God of all grace.”
The Lord that I have known as laying down His life for me is the same Lord I have to do with every day of my life, and all His dealings with me are on the same principles of grace. The great secret of growth is the looking up to the Lord as gracious. How precious, how strengthening it is to know that Jesus is at this moment feeling and exercising the same love towards me as when He died on the cross for me.
The Circumstances of Life
This is a truth that should be used by us in the most common everyday circumstances of life. Suppose, for instance, I find an evil temper in myself, which I feel it difficult to overcome; let me bring it to Jesus as my Friend; virtue goes out of Him for my need. The source of real strength is in the sense of the Lord’s being gracious. The natural man in us always disbelieves Christ as the only source of strength and of every blessing. Suppose my soul is out of communion; the natural heart says, “I must correct the cause of this before I can come to Christ,” but He is gracious, and knowing this, the way is to return to Him at once, just as we are, and then humble ourselves deeply before Him. It is only in Him and from Him that we shall find that which will restore our souls. Humbleness in His presence is the only real humility. If we own ourselves in His presence to be just what we are, we shall find that He will show us nothing but grace.
Thoughts About Jesus
It is Jesus who gives abiding rest to our souls, and not what our thoughts about ourselves may be. Faith never thinks about that which is in ourselves as its ground of rest; it receives, loves and apprehends what God has revealed and what are God’s thoughts about Jesus, in whom is His rest. Our eyes and our hearts being occupied with Him, they will be effectually prevented from being taken up with the vanity and sin around, and this too will be our strength against the sin and corruption of our own hearts.
Whatever I see in myself that is not in Him is sin, but then it is not thinking of my own sins and my own vileness and being occupied with them that will humble me, but thinking of the Lord Jesus, dwelling upon the excellency in Him.
It is well to be done with ourselves and to be taken up with Jesus. We are entitled to forget ourselves; we are entitled to forget our sins; we are entitled to forget all but Jesus.
The Young Christian
The Practical Christian Life
The chief desire of the true Christian is to live to God. The divine life that the believer possesses is evidenced by godly desires, while the Spirit of God, who dwells in His people, is ever most graciously controlling the heart and leading the believer towards God. But we have to look well to ourselves, lest our desires only go that far. God calls upon us to devote ourselves to Him. “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God,” says the Apostle, “that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service” (Rom. 12:1). God gave His Son to die, a sacrifice for us; God expects from us that we give ourselves to Him a continual life sacrifice. This is the path of real holiness, and it is a lifelong path.
Further the exhortation runs, “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God” (Rom. 12:1-2). The inward work here spoken of is continuous; it is a work that goes on, or should go on, day by day. Perhaps it is a very little day by day, yet it is everyday work. The mind, the seat of man’s intelligence, is graciously acted upon by God the Spirit, and thus through the renewing of it the transforming of the whole man takes place, so that at length the Christian rejoices in what God is and what He delights in.
Let us seek from God for a portion of His Word that may be to us the day’s bread, and let that portion fill our minds, and thus renewing of the mind will take place. Then we shall not be conformed to the world, but shall be transformed to likeness to Christ, and we shall prove for ourselves in our experience what is the good and perfect and acceptable will of God.
The Young Christian (adapted)
What Are We Living for?
“The love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: and that He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them, and rose again” (2 Cor. 5:14-15).
The thought uppermost in my mind in reading these verses is just as simple as it is of all importance, and that is, beloved brethren, What are we living for? A weighty question, I need not say, and it is important to our souls that we should not shrink from answering it, and that we should answer it in the fear of God. Verse 15 was particularly before me: “He died for all, that they which live,” that is, the believers. All were dead, believers and unbelievers alike; all were ruined men before God. And the death of Christ is the proof of the condition of every soul naturally, that is, all are lost, all lifeless toward God. That even the Son of God, who is everlasting life, should need to suffer, should find no portion but death in this world, is the proof that there is no life in it. Everything lay so irretrievably in death that for Him to die is the only door of deliverance out of it. And, “He died for all.”
It is not said that all should live, though undoubtedly there was life in Him adequate for every soul — life everlasting in Christ. But then, in fact, no soul did, none would, receive Him — not one. Grace therefore has wrought and given some to receive Him. And therefore it is added, “He died for all, that they which live” — that is, they who do believe in Him, and therefore have life — “that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them, and rose again.”
Living for Ourselves or for Him?
Every question that arises brings out one of these two things — whether we are living to ourselves or to Him who died for us and rose again. Do we not have to own the sad truth of how constantly we have to rebuke our souls? How often the first impulse of the heart is to take that view of everything which would minister to our pleasure or gratification or importance? What is this but living to ourselves? When any question comes before us, when anything, either in the way of an evil to be avoided, a loss to be shunned, or something to be gained, some object that comes before us, is it not our tendency to look upon how it will bear upon us and to give it that turn which will be for our profit or advantage in some way or another? I do not say this is always personal; it may be for our family, for our children, looking onward to the future or at the present. Now, we are always wrong when we do it. God would not have us to neglect the real good of those dear to us and dependent on us, but the question is whether we trust ourselves or Christ.
Christian Truth, 15:315
Light and Everyday Life
Does my path in everyday life come from the light, and is it guided by it? ... All will be bright where it is so with God. There will be trials, but trials with God are perhaps the brightest spots in any man’s life.
J. N. Darby
Your Daily Delight
Is the thought of the Lord’s coming your daily delight? Does it influence you in the ten thousand details of your everyday life? Or are you so walking hand in hand with the world that the very thought of His coming fills you with shame?
J. N. Darby
Cast Thy Burden Upon the Lord
The camel, at the close of the day,
Kneels down upon the sandy plain
To have his burden lifted off,
And rest to gain.
My soul, thou shouldst fall to thy knees
When daylight draweth to a close,
And let thy Master lift the load,
And grant repose.
Else how couldst thou tomorrow meet,
With all tomorrow’s work to do,
If thou thy burden all the night
Dost carry through?
The camel kneels at the break of day
To have his guide replace his load —
Then rises up anew to take
The desert road.
So thou shouldst kneel at morning’s dawn
That God may give thee daily care,
Assured that He no load too great
Will make thee bear.
A. Temple