Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity . . .
— Hebrews 6:1a
The absence of spiritual devotion today is an omen and a portent. The modern church is all but contemptuous of the sober virtues ? meekness, modesty, humility, quietness, obedience, self-effacement, patience. To be accepted now, religion must be in the popular mood. Consequently, much religious activity reeks with pride, display, self-assertion, self-promotion, love of gain and devotion to trivial pleasures. It behooves us to take all this seriously. Time is running out for all of us. What is done must be done quickly. We have no right to lie idly by and let things take their course.
A farmer who neglects his farm will soon lose it; a shepherd who fails to look after his flock will find the wolves looking after it for him. A misbegotten charity that allows the wolves to destroy the flock is not charity at all but indifference, rather, and should be known for what it is and dealt with accordingly. It is time for Bible-believing Christians to begin to cultivate the sober graces and to live among men like sons of God and heirs of the ages. And this will take more than a bit of doing, for the whole world and a large part of the church is set to prevent it. But if God be for us, who can be against us?
thought
Over the years have there been those believers who have provided for you an example of quiet, Christlike living even in the most adverse circumstances? Thank God for those who show the rest of us daily living characterized by the sober virtues.
prayer
Thank You, Lord, for those who have modeled Christlike living to me. They have demonstrated that I, too, may grow and grow and grow. . . .
Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted.
— Galatians 6:1
It is more than probable that in the whole history of the United States there was never at any one time so much religious activity as there is today. And it is also very likely that there was never less true spirituality. . . . Now, experience has prepared us for the rebuttal we will surely hear from tender-minded friends: "Who are we to judge? We must leave these professed Christians with the Lord and look to our own doorstep. And furthermore, we should be glad for any little bit of good that is being done and not spoil it by faultfinding." All that sounds good, but it is an expression of a religious laissez faire which would stand carelessly by and permit the whole church of Christ to degenerate morally and spiritually without daring to raise a hand to help or a voice to warn. So did not the prophets.
So did not Christ, or His apostles, or the Reformers; and so will not any man do who has seen heaven opened and beheld visions of God. Elijah could have kept his mouth shut and saved himself a lot of trouble. John the Baptist could have kept silent and saved his head; and every martyr might have pleaded laissez faire and died comfortably in his bed at a ripe old age. But in doing so, they would all have disobeyed God and laid themselves open to a severe judgment in the day of Christ.
thought
Some of us are reluctant to admonish others because of questionable areas in our own living. But there is a spiritual responsibility to gently seek the restoration of those who fall into sin.
prayer
Father, make me a gentle restorer of younger believers who stumble and fall. May my daily living provide credentials for such ministry.
Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly ? mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready.
— 1 Corinthians 3:1-2
For some reason, religious activity and godliness do not always go together. To discover this, it is only necessary to observe the current religious scene. There is no lack of soul-winning effort surely, but many of the soul-winners give one the impression that they are little more than salesmen for a brand of Christianity that simply does not lead to saintliness. If this should strike you as being uncharitable, make this little test: kneel down and read reverently the Sermon on the Mount. Let it get hold of your heart. Catch the spiritual "feeling" of it. Try to conceive what kind of person he or she would be who would embody its teachings.
Then compare your conception with the product of the modern religious mill. You will find a wide world of difference both in conduct and in spirit. If the Sermon on the Mount is a fair description of the sort of person a Christian ought to be, then what are we to conclude about the multitudes who have "accepted" Christ but nevertheless exhibit not one moral or spiritual trait such as those described by our Lord? Now, experience has prepared us for the rebuttal we will surely hear from tender-minded friends: "Who are we to judge? We must leave these professed Christians with the Lord and look to our own doorstep. And furthermore, we should be glad for any little bit of good that is being done and not spoil it by faultfinding."
thought
Though years from our spiritual birth, must we still be pablum-fed? Jealousy, quarreling and divisions are sure signs of spiritual immaturity. It is time to switch to a solid food diet.
prayer
Lord, I thank You that I am Your child. But despite the years that I have known You there are still areas of life where I am childish. Oh, may I grow!
He went away a second time and prayed, 'My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.'
— Matthew 26:42
In a world like ours, courage is an indispensable virtue. The coward may snivel in his corner, but the brave man takes the prize. And in the kingdom of God, courage is as necessary as it is in the world. The timid soul is as pitiable on his knees as he is in society. When entering the prayer chamber, we must come filled with faith and armed with courage. Nowhere else in the whole field of religious thought and activity is courage so necessary as in prayer. The successful prayer must be one without condition. We must believe that God is love and that, being love, He cannot harm us but must ever do us good. Then we must throw ourselves before Him and pray with boldness for whatever we know our good and His glory require, and the cost is no object! Whatever He in His love and wisdom would assess against us, we will accept with delight because it pleased Him. Prayers like that cannot go unanswered. The character and reputation of God guarantee their fulfillment. We should always keep in mind the infinite lovingkindness of God. No one need fear to put his life in His hands. His yoke is easy; His burden is light.
thought
With courage we may pray without condition because of who God is and His love for us. We may receive whatever answer He gives, confident that He desires our highest good.
prayer
My times are in Your hand, Father, whether "pleasing or painful, dark or bright as best may seem to Thee."
Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, 'My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.'
— Matthew 26:39
Juliana of Norwich at the beginning of her wonderful Christian life addressed a prayer to her Savior and then added the wise words, "And this I ask without any condition." It was that last sentence that gave power to the rest of her prayer and brought the answer in mighty poured-out floods as the years went by. God could answer her prayer because He did not need to mince matters with her. She did not hedge her prayers around with disclaimers and provisos. She wanted certain things from God at any cost. God, as it were, had only to send her the bill. She would pay any price to get what she conceived to be good for her soul and glorifying to her Heavenly Father.
That is real praying. Many of us spoil our prayers by being too "dainty" with the Lord (as some old writer called it). We ask with the tacit understanding that the cost must be reasonable. After all, there is a limit to everything, and we do not want to be fanatical! We want the answer to be something added, not something taken away. We want nothing radical or out of the ordinary, and we want God to accommodate us at our convenience. Thus we attach a rider to every prayer, making it impossible for God to answer it.
thought
Dare we pray to God without attaching conditions? Conditionless praying trusting ourselves to His will, placing ourselves in His hands.
prayer
Teach me to pray, Lord, to pray without conditions trusting You.
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.
— Psalm 119:105
Among men, questions usually have more than one side; sometimes they have many. Pros and cons are often balanced so finely against each other that it is virtually impossible to know where the right lies. But with God there is only one side. God's side is good and holy and all other sides are wrong, the degree and seriousness of the wrong increasing as we move away from the center of God's will. Our desire for moral self-preservation should dictate that we come over immediately onto God's side and stay there even if (as is likely) it may result in our being out of accord with man's philosophies and man's moral codes.
We cannot win when we work against God, and we cannot lose when we work with Him. Now, how can we know for certain which side is God's side? No one in this late day should need to ask that question, but since it is being asked in all sincerity by many, we are glad to give the answer. There is a Book which says of itself, "And God spoke all these words," and about which it is said, "Beyond all question, the mystery of godliness is great: He appeared in a body, was vindicated by the Spirit, was seen by angels, was preached among the nations, was believed on in the world, was taken up to glory" (1 Timothy 3:16). Acquaintance with this Book will bring light to all dark paths and show us the right side of all questions. Of course, that Book is the Bible. What glory gilds the sacred page, Majestic like the sun! It gives a light to every age; It gives, but borrows none.
thought
God speaks to us through the Written Word. Contained in it are life principles to recognize and apply in our life situations. His Word reveals who He is and who we are in Him.
prayer
Spirit of God, open my heart eyes to see the light of Your Word and daily walk in that light in this world of darkness.
But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve. . . . But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."
— Joshua 24:15
The points at which God's way and man's intersect are likely to be four (though there may be others), and we will usually find our differences with God to occur somewhere in these four areas. . . . Second, our moral standards. There are probably as many ideas of righteousness as there are people in the world, and it would be futile to argue that one is better than another. The test is not which code is best but whether or not any code agrees with the Scriptures. In the Christian Scriptures, the Lord of the whole earth declares His own moral will for mankind, and it is profound wisdom to seek it and conform to it.
Otherwise, we are at the mercy of our own deceitful hearts. For all men of faith, God's will is righteousness. The believing soul will not argue about it; he will accept it and bring the controversy to an end. The third point of possible controversy is in our way of life. This embraces the whole of our lives on earth as decided by our basic moral ideas. Our way of life is simply our moral code in its daily outflow. p>The fourth is our plans.
The Christian who has in principle accepted God's truth as his standard of conduct and has submitted himself to Christ as his Lord, may yet be tempted to lay his own plans and even fight for them when they are challenged by the Word of God or the inner voice of the Spirit. We humans are a calculating, planning race, and we like to say, "Tomorrow I will . . ." But our Heavenly Father knows us too well to trust our way to our own planning, so He very often submits His own plans to us and requires that we accept them. Right there a cthought
Our daily living is the most accurate indicator of our true moral standards and life priorities. On Sunday we may pretend to be on God's side. It is our life living the rest of the week that vividly portrays whose side we are really on.
prayer
Lord, I want to live on Your side ? all day every day. I can only do it through Your enablement.ontroversy is sometimes stirred up between the soul and God. But we had better not insist on our own way. It will always be bad for us in the long run. God's way is best.
'For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,' declares the LORD.
— Isaiah 55:8
Whenever and wherever there is a controversy between God and a man, God is always right and the man always wrong. "So that you may be proved right in your words and prevail in your judging" (Psalm 51:4). The only way any man can be right is to come over onto God's side. Whoever sticks to his own side is forever wrong. The points at which God's way and man's intersect are likely to be four (though there may be others), and we will usually find our differences with God to occur somewhere in these four areas. First, our thoughts.
Divine inspiration has declared that the thoughts of man are vain, and in the prophecy of Isaiah, God sets His case before us so plainly that comment is hardly necessary: "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the Lord. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts" (Isaiah 55:8-9).
thought
Living on God's side involves embracing God's thoughts as a habit of life. Not just thinking His thoughts for a small part of the day (our 'quiet time') but as our philosophy of life and intellectual pattern.
prayer
As much as humanly possible, I want to grasp Your thoughts and ways, Lord, as my understanding of life.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love . . .
— Galatians 5:22a
"Love," said Meister Eckhart, "is the will to, the intention." By that definition, it is possible to obey the divine command to love our neighbor. We may not in a thousand years be able to feel a surge of emotion toward certain "neighbors," but we can go before God and solemnly will to love them, and the love will come. By prayer and an application of the inworking power of God, we may set our faces to will the good of our neighbor and not his evil all the days of our lives, and that is love. The emotion may follow, or there may be no appreciable change in our feelings toward him, but the intention is what matters.
We will his peace and prosperity and put ourselves at his disposal to help him in every way possible, even to the laying down of our lives for his sake. Love, then, is a principle of good will and is to a large extent under our control. That it can be fanned into a blazing fire is not denied here. Certainly God's love for us has a mighty charge of feeling in it, but beneath it all is a set principle that wills our peace. Probably the love of God for mankind was never more beautifully stated than by the angel at the birth of Christ: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to man on whom his favor rests."
thought
Loving with agape love is choosing, willing to direct God's love to specific people whether or not they are loveable or responsive. It is loving people because God loves them and it is loving with His love.
prayer
Today, Holy Spirit, I will to love with that God-love You produce in me.