I WAS much struck lately by hearing a brother in the Lord express in his prayer the desire that we might all realize the necessity of moral suitability if we are to be anything for God in this world through which we are so quickly passing.
The words seemed to me to eminently and concisely describe what God requires of us, and what, through the energy of the Holy Spirit, is by no means an impossibility.
In one sense, of course, we are all judicially and morally suitable to God. We are "accepted in the Beloved." The blood of Jesus has brought us nigh, and the alien of the far country has been transformed into the child of a loving and gracious Father. But, experimentally, do we not work out our own salvation, God working in us? And, alas! how often have we proved that it is quite possible for us to fail, and sadly so!
Moral suitability is not limited to outward evidences. To the eyes of our brethren and the outside world we may be paragons of excellence, yet the heart may not be right with God, for there are many private dealings and controversies between God and the soul of which no one else is cognizant. Man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart.
If, therefore, our hearts are going on with anything which the Spirit of God has taught us is not according to His mind, we surely cannot dare to hope that we shall be used in the Lord's service.
To be in a condition of moral suitability, as I take it, means to be in a state of complete obedience and submission to God, leaning hard on Him as the only source of strength, and desiring to know and follow His will in full separation from all that is disobedient or dishonoring to the Lord Jesus Christ.
“Clean hands and a pure heart" (Psa. 24) are His gift and His requirement.
We can have no liberty or happiness in service if there is a consciousness of anything wrong within, for the Holy Spirit is grieved—our own hearts are sad, everything is awry, and there can be no peace until we have the, whole thing out with God in downright contrite confession, seeking His grace to be delivered from all that would hinder our soul's progress.
Victory, therefore, is embodied in the idea of moral suitability, and conflict is embodied in the idea of victory.
I cannot be a victor if I have not overcome some opposing force, and the opposing force cannot be overcome without a conflict; and here, where the trend of circumstances is so dead against the furtherance of spiritual life, the overcomer has his daily wrestling. Oh, how blessed is even the smallest taste of victory!
What joy it brings!
How the things of time and sense lose their charm when we enjoy the victory over them all which our good God is only longing to give us! "The joy of the Lord is our strength." God would not require moral suitability from us if He did not supply the power to carry it out. "All His commands are enabling’s.”
Nor is it His intention that our moral suitability should be a dry, legal, unattractive thing, or that His people should be correct icicles, very good and yet very chilly; but He would have us filled with His love, warm-hearted and earnest in His service, and "prepared unto every good work.”
What fields there are around us—fields of yellow waving corn ripe unto the harvest! And the laborers, oh, how few!
And our poor hearts so cold and dead, our hands hanging so helplessly down, and our feeble knees so sadly in need of strength!
There is so much for us to do.
Lord, make us morally suitable to do it!
J. W. MCC.