I shall rest not, until I have found my brothers and sisters. Amen.
Week 8 Friday
The Most Intimate of All Assurances: The Assurance of the Spirit
Romans 8:16; 2 Corinthians 1:21-22; 1 John 3:24; 5:11-12
You say, these assurances are good, precious beyond words, but shall I not see him face to face? You shall.
I cannot feel that God would give the intimations of presence by giving gifts, but would withhold the divine self. Would you as a father, a mother, do that to your child? Then, “If you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?” (Luke 11:13 CEB). Being love, it would hurt God as much as us to withhold his divine self.
Listen to these words: “It is the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God.” The Spirit; our spirit. They come together. Now there is nothing between.
Hush! God speaks, so gently, so intimately: “Child of mine, you shall never know how far I have come to find you. I came seeking you through a cross. But that is gone now. I have found you. You have thrown down the barriers. That is what I’ve waited for. Now throw away that lingering doubt and fear. It is I. Be not afraid. When that last fear is gone, then we shall talk together. All you have is mine; you have said it. And now all I have is yours; I say it. Draw on me for what you need. My resources are adequate, inexhaustible. Tell me all your troubles, even the little ones, and I will tell you some of mine. It costs to be God. We shall share together. And as we share together you shall grow, and some day, my child, I want you to be like my other Child. I can think of nothing better for you, and so I can wish for nothing less. You know by my coming that all your sins are forgiven. I blot them out of the book of my remembrance forever. I will not remember them, and you must not.”
O God, my Lord, I bow in speechless adoration. I, the once vile, am now fully accepted. Amazing grace! I bow and kiss your feet, but as I do, I feel your love enfolding me to your heart. I thank you. Amen.
Week 8 Saturday
Is This Assurance Based on Feeling?
2 Corinthians 5:4-5; Philippians 1:9-11; Colossians 2:6-7
We now have the fivefold strands of assurance binding themselves about our hearts: the assurance of the Word, the collective witness, the assurance through new moral power, through the creative impulse, and the direct witness of the Holy Spirit to our spirits. Surely, this should give the strongest assurance that can be given to any mortal on any matter whatever. These lines of assurance all converging give not only a spiritual, but an intellectual certainty as well. For the mind, gathering up the facts in experience and the universe around one—facts which seem to approve and work in behalf of the new life—comes to a mental satisfaction from the resultant sense of wholeness.
But is all this dependent on how I feel about the matter? If my feelings change, what then?
It does depend partly on feeling, but only partly. We should not be afraid of emotions, for they are a part of us, an integral part. They give driving force to the soul. But they are liable to fluctuation, according to the state of physical health and many other things. The spiritual life must use them, but it must not be founded on them. It must be centered in the will. You have made what is called in psychology “a permanent choice.” It is one of those choices that does not have to be made over again every day. The lesser choices of life fit into this central permanent choice, not it into them. It organizes life around itself as the Ganges gathers the lesser streams into itself. It remains the permanent abiding fact amid the flow and flux of feeling.
But the decision of the will is not a bare, hard, unfeeling thing. It has its emotional tone, and the more decisive the choice the deeper the emotional tone. But whether the Ganges is made rough by storms or smooth by calm, it flows on its life-way. So with you. Yours is a permanent lifechoice. Don’t raise the issue again every time your feelings change.
O Christ, you do not change, no matter how my feelings change. You will abide in my heart whether I feel you there or not. I thank you that, as I make the permanent choice, you take up your permanent abode. Amen.
Week 9 Sunday
Week 9 Sunday
The Take-off
Matthew 17:20; Acts 9:17-22; Galatians 5:7; Philippians 1:6
The first days of adjustment after one makes a life decision are the most difficult. Infant mortality in the kingdom is as devastating as infant mortality in India. But most infant mortality in India is preventable. So too, if there are casualties in the new life in the early days, they are preventable.
There is no dodging the fact that the first few days and weeks are crucial. An expert in airplanes told me that it takes twice the power for the machine to rise from the water as it does for it to fly. The earth and water seem loath to let it go. It takes twice the power to break with the old life as it does to live the new life after new habits have been formed.
That need not appall you. This morning in my quiet time I came across this verse, “Who will roll away the stone? . . . And looking up, they saw that the stone was rolled back” (Mark 16:3-4). We see the difficulties like huge stones before us, and lo, as we get to them one by one, they are rolled back. Remember the Silent Partner also at work is practiced at rolling back stones.
First of all, let us remember that there are certain laws of the spiritual life, which are as definite as the laws that underlie our physical lives. I do not mean that a set of rules is given into your hands for you to obey. The Christian life is not mechanically and minutely obeying a set of rules. It is a love affair. And lovers don’t sit down and look at the rules to see what is to be done next. Nevertheless, even in a love affair there are underlying laws of friendship which have to be obeyed or else there will be shipwreck. One of the reasons so many casualties take place is because we are haphazard. And if we are haphazard, we shall not be happy.
O Christ of the disciplined will, teach me to live the life according to your way. I come stumblingly, but I come. I am set to obey; teach me. Amen.
Week 9 Monday
Commit Yourself
1 Kings 18:21; Luke 19:1-10; John 9:25
One of the first things to do is to commit yourself. The Christian life is the beginning of a life as different from ordinary life as ordinary humans are different from animals. You are different, and therefore you will act differently. The temptation will be to raise no issues, to upset no life-habits, to take on protective resemblance to your environment and to settle down, hoping that the inward life will somehow or other manifest by itself. It won’t. You must decide it shall.
Professor William James, speaking from the standpoint of sound psychology, says in regard to any decision: “When once the judgment is decided, let a man commit himself irretrievably. Let him put himself in a position where it will lay on him the necessity of doing more, the necessity of doing all. Let him take a public pledge if the case allows.” This is sound psychology and therefore sound Christianity. Note that word irretrievably. Leave no open door behind you. The mind in a fearful moment may be tempted to take that way of escape. You are no longer a person of an escape mentality. A business owner, after making the great decision, called his employees together the next day and told them what had happened to him. All of the employees respect him.
I was recently called out at night by a servant who told me there
