Adventures in the Land of CanaanBerry, R. L. (Robert Lee)
Religion
Adventures in the Land of Canaan
Berry, R. L. (Robert Lee)
Christian life
We are sanctified by faith; we enter into complete soul-rest by faith.
There is no other way. We must come to God and simply ask Him to work
His complete redemption in our hearts and fill us with the Spirit. After
we give ourselves wholly to Him, after we lay all on the altar, there
is nothing more that we can do except trust and obey. It is God's part
to complete in us the work for salvation; our business is to trust Him
to do it. We trust carpenters and builders to build our houses, we trust
bankers with our money, we trust men every day and hour of our lives;
shall we not trust God?
In all battles with doubt, go back to basic facts. Allow no confusion
of mind, no agitation of spirit; calm every fear and find out just where
and how you are. First, ask yourself if you are all the Lord's. Do you
now lay on His altar your all? Do you now choose His will? Do you intend
to serve Him? Do you answer, "Yes"? Put that down then as a settled fact.
Never allow yourself to doubt a point that has been settled. Let it stay
settled. Next ask yourself if you believe God is true to His word, if
you believe He will do what He promised. If you say, "Yes," let that
point be settled also. Stand by it. If you have met the conditions upon
which God promised to cleanse and fill you, you must believe that God
does these things for you.
Doubts have a way of coming in early in the morning. They are like bad
neighbors, they come when they are not wanted. Doubts may arise because
you do not "feel" as you should like to, or because you have made mistakes;
or simply because you have been sorely tempted. You must learn that
feeling is no true gage of your spiritual experience.
An encounter with doubts may be something like this: You awake in the
morning and are possessed of a feeling that is utterly non-religious.
You do not feel one whit as though you are fully saved and trusting, but
just the opposite. Not having learned to pay no attention to this, but
instead to jump up and praise and thank God for all His goodness, you
begin to question, "Am I really and truly consecrated? Where are all my
joyful feelings? Why do I feel this way? Surely something is wrong."
The longer you think, the more doubtful you become, and at last
discouragement takes charge of your whole soul.
There is no harm, but good, in examining ourselves; it is all right to
put hard and searching questions to our hearts as to our standing with
God. But when doubts lead to such an examination, the result is usually
disastrous.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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