NOVEMBER 2.
"Bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ" (II.
Cor. x. 5).
If we would abide in Christ we must have no confidence in self.
Self-repression must be ever the prime necessity of divine fulness and efficiency. Now you know how quickly you spring to the front when any emergency arises. When something in which you are interested comes up, you say what you think under some sudden impulse, and then perhaps you have weeks of taking back your thought and taking the Lord"s instead. It is only when we get out of the way of the Lord that He can use us. So, be out of self, always suspending your will about everything until you have looked at it and said: "Lord, what is your will? What is your thought about it?"
Those who thus abide in Christ have the habit of reserve and quiet; they are not rattling and reckless talkers, they will not always have an opinion about everything, and they will not always know what they are going to do. There will be a deferential holding back of judgment, and walking softly with G.o.d. It is our headlong, impulsive spirit that keeps us so constantly from hearing and following the Lord.
NOVEMBER 3.
"This is my Beloved, and this is my Friend" (Song of Solomon v. 16).
He is our Friend. "Which of you shall have a friend at night?" This has deep significance through the experience of each one of us. Who has not had a friend, and more of a friend in some respects than even a father?
There are some intimacies not born of human blood that are the most intense and lasting bonds of earthly love. One by one let us count them over and recall each act and bond of love, and think of all that we may trust them for and all in which they stood by us, and then as we concentrate the whole weight of recollection and affection, let us put G.o.d in that place of confidence and think He is all that and infinitely more.
Our Friend! The one who is personally interested in us; who has set His heart upon us; who has come near to us in the tender and delicate intimacy of unspeakable fellowship; who gave us such invaluable pledges and promises; who has done so much for us, and who is ever ready to take any trouble or go to any expense to aid us-to Him we are coming in prayer, our Heavenly Friend.
NOVEMBER 4.
"Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings as in obeying the voice of the Lord?" (I. Sam. xv. 22).
Many a soul prays for sanctification, but fails to enter into the blessing because he does not intelligently understand and believingly accept G.o.d"s appointed means by Jesus Christ and the indwelling of the Spirit. Many a prayer for the salvation of others is hindered because the very friend takes the wrong course to bring about the answer, and resorts to means which are wholly fitted to defeat his worthy object.
We know many a wife who is pleading for her husband"s soul, and hoping to win him by avoiding anything that may offend him, and yielding to all his worldly tastes in the vain hope of attracting him to Christ. Far more effective would be an att.i.tude of fidelity to G.o.d and fearless testimony to Him, such as G.o.d could bless.
Many a congregation wonders why it is so poor and struggling. It may be found that its financial methods are wholly unscriptural and often unworthy of ordinary self-respect.
When we ask G.o.d for any blessing, we must allow Him to direct the steps which are to bring the answer.
NOVEMBER 5.
"I in them, and Thou in Me" (John xvii. 23).
If we would be enlarged to the full measure of G.o.d"s purpose, let us endeavor to realize something of our own capacities for His filling.
We little know the size of a human soul and spirit. Never, until He renews, cleanses and enters the heart can we have any adequate conception of the possibilities of the being whom G.o.d made in His very image, and whom He now renews after the pattern of the Lord Jesus Himself.
We know, however, that G.o.d has made the human soul to be His temple and abode, and that He knows how to make the house that can hold His infinite fulness. We know something of this as all our nature quickens into spring tide life at the coming of the Holy Spirit, and as from time to time new baptisms awaken the dormant powers and susceptibilities that we did not know we possessed.
Oh, let us give Him the right to make the best of us, and, with wonder filled, we shall some day behold the glorious temple which He has reared, and shall say, "Lord, what is man that Thou hast set Thine heart upon Him?"
NOVEMBER 6.
"Bless the Lord, O, my soul" (Ps. ciii. 1).
Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me be stirred up to magnify His holy name. "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits; who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies; who satisfieth thy mouth with good things, so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle"s." Who so well can sing this thanksgiving song as we, rejoicing as most of us do, we trust, in this full salvation, and praising G.o.d for the glorious health of a risen Lord and a continual youth?
This psalm and its opening verses is in the very center of the Scriptures by an exact count of letters and verses. So let it stand in our lives, as we look backward and forward and upward in grateful thanksgiving as we sing in its closing strains, "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name." Lord, center my heart in Thee and in the spirit of love and praise.
NOVEMBER 7.
"I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee"
(Isa. xli. 10).
G.o.d has three ways of helping us: First, He says, "I will strengthen thee"; that is, I will make you a little stronger yourself. And secondly, "I will help thee"; that is, I will add My strength to your strength, but you shall lead and I will help you. But thirdly, when you are ready, "I will uphold thee with the right hand of My righteousness"; that is, I will lift you up bodily and carry you altogether, and it will neither be your strength or My help, but My complete upholding. Hence it must be quite true, that when we come to the end of our strength, we come to the beginning of His, and that in Him the weakest are the strongest, and the most helpless the most helped. "He giveth power to the faint," but to "them that have no might" at all "He gives more strength," and His word forever is, "My grace is sufficient for thee." The answer is a paradox of contradictions, and yet the most practical truths, "Most gladly, therefore, will I glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me; for when I am weak, then am I strong."
NOVEMBER 8.
"For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free"
(Rom. viii. 2).
There is a natural law of sin and sickness, and if we just let ourselves go and sink into the trend of circ.u.mstances we shall go down and sink under the power of the tempter. But there is another law of spiritual life and of physical life in Christ Jesus to which we can rise and through which we can counterpoise and overcome the other law that bears us down.
But to do this requires real spiritual energy and fixed purpose and a settled posture and habit of faith. It is just the same when we bind the power in our factory. We must turn the belt on and keep it on. The power is there, but we must keep the connection and while we do so the law of this higher power will work and all the machinery will be in operation.
There is a spiritual law of choosing, believing, abiding and holding steady in our walk with G.o.d which is essential to the working of the Holy Ghost either in our sanctification or healing.