Quiet Talks with World WinnersGordon, S. D. (Samuel Dickey)
Religion
Quiet Talks with World Winners
Gordon, S. D. (Samuel Dickey)
Christian life
The Master's gracious plan is that we shall have the refreshment of doing
big things. We are made for big things. They help us grow into the big
size that belongs to us. World-winning is a great boon to the crowd
compelled by the habit of life to tread a narrow path.
<u>Giving God Free Use of Ourselves.</u>
Now the great question every earnest man asks himself is, How can I be of
most use to God and my fellows? I want to suggest three things that have
helped me in answering that question. It may be that they will help you,
too, in getting your answer to it.
First of all is this: that we let God have the free use of us. Whatever I
am, whatever gifts and opportunities I have--these I will turn over to
God, that He may have the fullest and freest use of them. God asks from
each of us <i>a consecrated personality</i>. And "consecrated" simply means
that I give God the use of myself, and that He makes use of what I have
given to Him. That's the double meaning of the word in the Bible.
My personality, that is, what I am in myself, is the chief thing I have in
life. It is through this personality, which men recognize as I, that the
Spirit of God works in His reaching out for others. My personality is the
make-up of all that I am. My presence is that subtle something that
combines all that I am. It clings to me wherever I go. Men know it by my
name. Out through it goes the power of the man within.
The body, the glance of the eye, the quality and intonation of the voice,
the way the body is carried, and the something more than these that
unites them into one--these go to make up the presence, the outer shell of
the personality. All the power within makes itself felt through this. A
man's mere presence is an immeasurable influence.
There is a subtle, intangible, but very real spirit influence breathing
out of every man's presence. It is proportioned entirely to the strength
of the man living within. With some it is very attractive. Sometimes it is
positively repulsive. It is the expression of the man within. The presence
becomes the mould of the spirit within, large or small, noble or mean,
coarse or fine, as he makes it. The strength of a man's will or its
weakness; the purity of his heart or its lack of purity; the ideals of his
life, high or low; the keenness or slowness of his thinking--all these
express themselves in his presence.
We know the difference between a man of strong presence and one whose
presence is weak; though very few of us are skilled in reading, except in
a very small way, the character it reveals; through our presence each of
us is constantly influencing those with whom we come in contact. Now this
is the chief thing we have for our winning work. This is the thing that
Jesus uses. It is this that the Spirit of God takes possession of, if He
may, and that He uses in His outreach to others. We win most and best
through what we are.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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