There is a word that saves the soul, "I will trust"; It makes the sick and suffering whole.
"I will trust."
NOVEMBER 9.
"Because I live ye shall live also" (John xiv. 19).
After having become adjusted to our Living Head and the source of our life, now our business is to abide, absorb and grow, leaning on His strength, drinking in His life, feeding on Him as the Living Bread, and drawing all of our resources from Him in continual dependence and communion. The Holy Spirit will be the great Teacher and Minister in this blessed process. He will take of the things of Christ and show them unto us, and He will impart them through all the channels and functions of our spiritual organism. As we yield ourselves to Him He will breathe His own prayer of communion, drawing out our hearts in longings and hungerings, which are the pledge of their own fulfilment, calling us apart in silent and wordless prayer and opening every pore, organ, sense and sensibility of our spiritual being to take in His life. As the lungs absorb the oxygen of the atmosphere, as the senses breathe in the sweet odors of the garden, so the heart instinctively receives and rejoices in the affection and fellowship of the beloved One by our side. Thus we become like a tree planted by the rivers of waters.
NOVEMBER 10.
"But prayer was made without ceasing, of the church unto G.o.d for him"
(Acts xii. 5).
But prayer is the link that connects us with G.o.d. This is the bridge that spans every gulf and bears us over every abyss of danger or of need. How significant the picture of the apostolic church: Peter in prison, the Jews triumphant, Herod supreme, the arena of martyrdom awaiting the dawning of the morning to drink up the apostle"s blood,-everything else against it.
"But prayer was made unto G.o.d without ceasing." And what the sequel? The prison open,-the apostle free,-the Jews baffled,-the wicked king eaten of worms, a spectacle of hideous retribution, and the Word of G.o.d rolling on in greater victory.
Do we know the power of our supernatural weapon? Do we dare to use it with the authority of a faith that commands as well as asks? G.o.d baptize us with holy audacity and Divine confidence. He is not wanting great men, but He is wanting men that will dare to prove the greatness of their G.o.d.
But G.o.d! But prayer!
NOVEMBER 11.
"Reckon yourselves dead, indeed" (Rom. vi. 11).
Our life from the dead is to be followed up by the habit and att.i.tude henceforth which is the logical outcome of all this. "Reckon yourselves _dead indeed_, unto sin, but _alive unto G.o.d_ through Jesus Christ, and yield yourselves unto G.o.d," not to die over again every day, "_but, as those who are alive from the dead_, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto G.o.d."
Further His resurrection life is given to fit us for "the fellowship of His sufferings and to be made conformable unto His death."
It is intended to enable us to toil and suffer with rejoicing and victory.
We "mount up with wings as eagles," that we may come back to "run and not be weary, to walk and not faint."
But let us not mistake the sufferings. They do not mean _our_ sufferings, but His. They are not our struggles after holiness, our sicknesses and pains, but those higher sufferings which, with Him, we bear for others, and for a suffering church and a dying world. May G.o.d help us, henceforth, never to have another sorrow for ourselves, and put us at leisure, in the power of His resurrection, to bear His burdens and drink His cup.
NOVEMBER 12.
"The earnest of the Spirit in our hearts" (II. Cor. i. 22).
Life in earnest. What a rare, what a glorious spectacle! We see it in the Son of G.o.d, we see it in His apostle, we see it in every n.o.ble, consecrated and truly successful life. Without it there may be a thousand good things, but they lack the golden thread that binds them all into a chain of power and permanence. They are like a lot of costly and beautiful beads on a broken string, that fall into confusion, and are lost in the end for want of the bond that alone could bind them into a life of consistent and lasting power. O for the baptism of fire! O for "THE EARNEST, THE SPIRIT!" O for lives that have but one thing to do or care for! O for the depth and everlasting strength of the heart of Christ within our breast, to love, to sacrifice, to realize, to persevere, to live and die like Him!
We are going forth with a trust so sacred, And a truth so divine and deep, With a message clear and a work so glorious, And a charge-such a charge-to keep.
Let it be your greatest joy, my brother, That the Lord can count on you; And if all besides should fail and falter, To your trust be always true.
NOVEMBER 13.
"Delight thyself in the Lord" (Ps. x.x.xvii. 4).
Daniel"s heart was filled with G.o.d"s love for His work and kingdom and his prayers were the mightiest forces of his time, through which G.o.d gave to him the restoration of Israel to their own land, and the acknowledgment by the rulers of the world of the G.o.d of whom he testified and for whom he lived.
There is a beautiful promise in the thirty-seventh Psalm, "Delight thyself in the Lord, and He will give thee the desires of thine heart," which it is, perhaps, legitimate to translate, that not only does it mean the fulfilment of our desires, but even the inspiration of our desires, the inbreathing of His thoughts into us, so that our prayers shall be in accord with His will and so shall bring back to us the unfailing answer of His mighty providence.
Teach me Thy thoughts, O G.o.d!
Think Thou, Thyself, in me, Then shall I only always think Thine own thoughts after Thee.
Teach me Thy thoughts, O G.o.d!
Show me Thy plan divine: Save me from all my plans and works, And lead me into Thine.
NOVEMBER 14.
"The things which are seen are temporal" (II. Cor. iv. 18).
How strong is the snare of the things that are seen, and how necessary for G.o.d to keep us in the things that are unseen! If Peter is to walk on the water, he must walk; if he is going to swim, he must swim, but he cannot do both. If the bird is going to fly it must keep away from the fences and the trees, and trust to its buoyant wings. But if it tries to keep within easy reach of the ground, it will make poor work of flying.
G.o.d had to bring Abraham to the end of his own strength, and to let him see that in his own body he could do nothing. He had to consider his own body as good as dead, and then take G.o.d for the whole work, and when he looked away from himself, and trusted G.o.d alone, then He became fully persuaded that what He had promised, He was able also to perform.
This is what G.o.d is teaching us, and He has to keep away encouraging results until we learn to trust without them, and then He loves to make His word real in fact as well as faith.
Let us look only to Him to-day to do all things as He shall choose and in the way He shall choose.