This classic is just what I need to be reading at the beginning of this new year, at this point in my journey of realizing that there is still a part of my heart that is guarded against trusting implicitly in God's goodness. All around me is a world full of Christians she describes:
"You have found Jesus as your Saviour.... You have carefully studied the Holy Scriptures.... but in spite of it all, your souls are starving and dying within you, and you cry out in secret, again and again...." ch 1
But she insists this is not the way it has to be.
"...the Scriptures do set before the believer in the Lord Jesus a life of abiding rest and continual victory, which is very far beyond the ordinary run of Christian experience; and that in the Bible we have presented to us a Saviour able to save us from the power of our sins as really as he saves us from their guilt."
And here's what it boils down to:
1. Entire surrender to the Lord and
2. Perfect trust in him.
(so simple, and yet, so very difficult!)
"He made you, and therefore he understands you, and knows how to manage you; and you must trust Him to do it. Say to him,
'Here, Lord, I abandon myself to thee. I have tried in every way I could think of to manage myself, and to make myself what I know I ought to be, but have always failed. Now I give it up to thee. Do thou take entire possession of me. Work in me all the good pleasure of thy will. Mold and fashion me into such a vessel as seemeth good to thee. I leave myself in thy hands, and I believe thou wilt, according to thy promise, make me into a vessel unto thy own honor, 'sanctified, and meet for the master's use, and prepared for every good work'
"Next, you must lay off every other burden....everything that concerns you, whether inward or outward....We know we are helpless as regards the future, but we feel the present wa in our own hands, and must be carried on our own shoulders.... Most people...take their burdens to Him, but they bring them away with them again, and are just as worried and unhappy as ever. But I take mine and leave them with Him, and come away and forget them. If the worry comes back, I take it to Him again; and I do this over and over, until at last I just forget I have any worries, and am at perfect rest."
Oh, this strikes me first as pollyanna. But I read on about what it means to become like a little child as Jesus spoke of and in my heart of hearts, and as a mother of two boys I adore and would do anything for, it makes sense!
"He is our Father, and He loves us, and He knows just what is best, and therefore, of course, His will is the very most blessed thing that can come to us under any circumstances. I do not understand how it is that the eyes of so many Christians have been blinded to this fact. But it really would seem ais if God's own children were more afraid of His will than of anything else in life, --His lovely, lovable will, which only means loving-kindness and tender mercies, and blessings unspeakable to their souls!....Heaven is a place of infinite bliss because His will is perfectly done there, and our lives share in this bliss just in proportion as His will is perfectly done in them. He loves us, --loves us I say, --and the will of love is always blessing for its loved one."
So, there it is, the secret: Entire Abandonment and Absolute Faith.
"No matter what may be the complications of your peculiar experience, no matter what your difficulties, or your surroundings, or your "peculiar temperament," these two steps, definitely taken and unwaveringly persevered in, will certainly bring you out sooner or later in the green pastures and still waters of this life hid with Christ in God. You may be perfectly sure of this."
She closes ch 4 with another prayer of consecration:
"Lord Jesus, I believe that thou art able and willing to deliver me from all the care and unrest and bondage of my Christian life. I believe thou didst die to set me free, not only in the future, but now and here. I believe thou art stronger than sin, and that thou canst keep me, in my extreme of weakness, from falling into its snares or yielding obedience to its commands. And, Lord, I am going to trust thee to keep me. I have tried keeping myself, and have failed, and failed, most grievously. I am absolutely helpless. So now I will trust thee. I give myself to thee. I keep back no reserves. Body, soul, and spirit, I present myself to thee as a piece of clay, to be fashioned into anything thy love and they wisdom shall choose...I trust thee utterly, and I trust thee now."
Can you pray this with me for 2008? WIll you? I dare you!
Joshua 1:9
Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.
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