GRACE IN ACTION

GRACE IN ACTION

I pray that each one may be made to know, according to his need, what it is to be made to lie down in green pastures, and led beside still waters, It is the thing which tries us, in mind, or body, or estate, which we must first surmount in the power of Christ. There is no power for anything until His power is effective where it is most needed, and where it is most needed there it must act first.

Many earnest souls do not progress because they are seeking to enjoy Christ while they are not subject to Him where they need Him most. Like one who says, ‘I want to have my room very warm’, and at the same time insists on keeping his head out of the window, saying, ‘I like to enjoy heat, but I will not allow my head to partake of it’, not knowing that, as the heat increases, the head becomes especially addressed! The fact is that grace, like all the great agents of His mercy, such as light and heat, always directs itself first to our greatest need, and if that need has not been affected by grace, we may be sure that we are not in the healthy enjoyment of grace. I believe earnest souls are often detained here; they would like grace to minister to them in everything except in the trial which rules them; they are under the bondage of their own feelings as to it, and grace will do nothing for them while they are slaves to a foreign potentate! Grace loves those who utterly and entirely refuse to ^[p. 144] endure any bondage to any feeling or trial in mind or body or estate.

The more one is with Christ the less one’s own failure occupies one. How graciously God has dealt with us! I feel I cannot praise too much for His goodness in giving my soul such rest in Himself. May we each know more of it! To be a free man and only Christ’s servant is a wonderful mercy. How little we take into account the peculiar fact of being another man’s servant!