Jesus will help you to make some gains each day if you will press your way
through the crowd and touch him. It is the earnest prayer of faith that
gets us through to God and makes us feel like giants in his strength. If
you would be strengthened in your soul, you must exercise. This is the law
of development in the spiritual as well as in the animal life. "Exercise
thyself unto godliness." This is a motto we should hang upon the walls of
our memory. Its meaning is that increase in godliness is attained only by
exercise.
I shall have much now to say about your doing, but bear in mind that the
doing is to be not in your strength, but in God's strength. Here are two
mottos to keep in remembrance: "Without Him I can do nothing"; "I can do
all things through Christ, who strengtheneth me." By the help of the Lord
we are going to tell you how to be strong in him. God wants you to be a
David. Go out in his strength and meet the Goliaths. They must fall before
you. I shall not tell you so much you do not know as I shall endeavor to
get you to practise what you know. How many times have you resolved to do
and have failed to keep your resolution? Your failure was not because you
could not, but because you did not. To make a success in any business
enterprise, one must give it constant and daily attention. Likewise, if
you make a success in the Christian life, you must give it constant and
daily attention. You must make it not only <i>a</i> business but <i>the
first</i> business of your life.
But some make this complaint: "It takes so much time." It will take some
time, that is true, and if you do not think you have time, then you had
better not begin. What would you think of a man who contemplated engaging
in some business, but said he did not have much time to devote to it? You
would advise him not to engage in the business at all. It takes time to
make advancement in the Christian life. One brother said, "But we must
attend to our temporal duties." My reply was, "Shall we not attend to our
spiritual duties?" When people talk of having to attend to temporal
duties, it appears that they are going to do this if they have to neglect
spiritual duties. Unless we have a better enlightenment than this, we
shall never make progress in the Christian life.
We have no excuse for not being strong in the Lord. "Watch ye, stand fast
in the faith, quit you like men, be strong." Of course, you need the help
of God, but God helps those who help themselves. He will not by some
irresistible power convey you to your closet and put you on your knees,
but he will give you strength to go if you will use what he gives you.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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