GOD’S WORD FOR JUNE 3

OUR PERSONAL PROMISES:

JESUS, YOU……. .BORE MY GRIEFS AND CARRIED MY SORROWS

JESUS, YOU…… ..WERE SMITTEN BY GOD AND AFFLICTED

JESUS, YOU…… .WERE WOUNDED FOR MY TRANSGRESSIONS

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THE WORD FOR TODAY

Isaiah 30:15

“In returning and rest shall be your salvation; in quietness and confidence shall be your strength.”

We are beginning the chapter, “In Stillness of Soul” in the book, Abide in Christ by Andrew Murray

There is a view of the Christian life that regards it as a sort of partnership in which God and man each have their part to do.  It admits that there is little man can do, and that little he does is defiled with sin; still he must do his utmost – then only can he expect God to do His part.  To those who think thus, it is extremely difficult to understand what Scripture means when it speaks of our being still and doing nothing, of our resting and waiting to see the salvation of God.  It appears to them a perfect contradiction when we speak of this quietness and ceasing from all effort as the secret of the highest activity of man and all his powers.  Yet this is just what Scripture does teach.

The explanation of the apparent mystery is to be found in this, that when God and man are spoken of as working together, there is nothing of the idea of a partnership between two partners who each contribute their share to a work.  The cooperation is a very different one.  The true idea is that of cooperation founded on subordination.  As Jesus was entirely dependent on the Father for all his words and all his works, so the believer can do nothing by himself.  What he can do by himself is altogether sinful. 

Therefore, he must cease entirely from his own doing and wait for the working of God in him.  As he ceases from self-effort, faith assures him that God does what He has undertaken, and works in him.  What God does is to renew, to sanctify, and to waken all his energies to their highest power.  So, in proportion to his yielding as a truly passive instrument in the hand of God, he will be wielded as the active instrument of God’s almighty power.  The soul in which the wondrous combination of perfect passivity with the highest activity is most completely realized has the deepest experience of what the Christian life is.

Among the lessons to be learned by those who are studying the blessed art of abiding in Christ, there is none more necessary and more profitable than this one of stillness of soul.  In it alone can we cultivate that teachableness of spirit, to which the Lord will reveal His secrets, that meekness to which He shows His ways.  It is the spirit exhibited so beautifully in the three Mary’s of the Bible.  In Mary the mother of God, whose only answer to the most wonderful revelation ever made to human beings was, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord: be it done unto me according to Your word.” (Luke 1:38).  It is a soul silent unto God that is the best preparation for knowing Jesus and for holding fast the blessings He bestows.  It is when the soul is hushed in silent awe and worship before the Holy Presence that reveals itself within, that the still small voice of the blessed Spirit will be heard.

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