Consecration being a definite transaction, and made once for all, does
not need to be repeated unless we have failed to keep it. To consecrate
over and over again is like a husband and wife marrying over and over
again. We are consecrated just as we are married. The vow is upon us,
and in the force of that vow, we walk all our days. All we have to do is
to remember day by day that we are wholly the Lord's, and see to it that
nothing is taken from the altar. Those who have kept their consecration
complete should testify to its maintenance upon all suitable occasions,
and never deny it by word, deed or silence.
Many years ago, I saw a form of consecration in an English periodical,
which is here given very slightly modified, and which has been adopted
by many. Let all my readers unite with the author in entering into this
personal yielding to God.
I am willing
To receive what Thou givest,
To lack what Thou withholdest,
To relinquish what Thou takest,
To suffer what Thou inflictest,
To be what Thou requirest,
To do what Thou commandest.
Amen.
In this connection, we may add that when the consecration is complete,
it becomes, comparatively, an easy matter to believe. Entire
sanctification like justification, and, indeed, all other gospel
blessings and experiences, is to be received by faith. But so long as
the surrender to God is not complete, faith refuses to act.
When all obstructions are removed by an act of heartfelt and sincere
consecration, then it becomes as natural and as easy to believe as it
is to breathe, after everything that hinders breathing is removed from
the air passages. We hear much complaint among Christians of a want of
faith. If they only had more faith, they imagine that all would be
well. When the disciples of old asked Jesus to increase their faith, He
told them, in effect, to use what they had. If it were only a mustard-seed
faith, He assured them that it would remove mountains. And we may
justly conclude that the difficulty with most seekers after entire
sanctification is not in a want of faith so much as in an incomplete
surrender. The carnal mind dies very hard. It attaches itself to one
worldly thing or another, and refuses to be sundered from what it
loves, and while this is the case, the individual cannot believe that
God gives him the unspeakable blessing of heart purity. But when all
the preliminaries have been attended to, and there is nothing else
needed but to trust in Jesus, then faith can appropriate His promises,
and in so doing realize their fulfillment.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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