Is it not perfectly right to make provision for life or death? Yes; but as the apostle Paul wrote to the Roman converts, “Make no provision for the flesh,” that is, the old nature, we who know, and believe in, and love the Lord have two natures — the carnal nature (the flesh), that still remains in the “born again,” and the new nature, which is the Spirit and is life. If you do not feed you die, so we are told not to feed the old nature, that is, self, but through God’s grace see that the new is fed that it may grow upward and onward and glorify God. By God’s grace helping us, to put self in the background, and “Not I, but Christ,” as our motto, thus the flesh will lose its food and thereby its vitality and strength. But do let us read the whole verse of Romans 13:4, and see the vital importance of the first portion. “Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ.” Why, if we really have put on the Lord Jesus as our robe, our covering, we shall indeed have His power to resist the flesh and self, to mortify the deeds of the body, and have His power to please and glorify Him. Do let us, dear friends, “put on the Lord,” as He bids us, and every day and hour seek to glorify Him by striving to win souls for His glory.
Emily P. Leakey