Closer Than a Brother Flashcards
Set times of prayer are valuable in order to form a habit of conversation with God, and – as I said – referring all we do to Him. They aren’t the end itself, but means to an end.
The end is God: being with Him, living in His presence and under His control. You can’t do that if you try to ration contact with God to 20 minutes twice a day or whatever it is.
By an ‘act of resignation’ I mean a conscious and deliberate submission to the will of God. A point were you say to God, “Lord, you are my God. You know what is best for me. You only can give me true joy. All my life lies in Your hands.
If this present strain is because of my rebellion or willfulness, or lack of faith, I here and now submit myself again totally to You, without any reserve, not claiming Your presence as a right but resigning myself completely to Your good and perfect will. “
To see it is important to talk with God and refer everything to Him isn’t the same thing as saying it is easy. To begin with, it requires discipline and persistent effort. The price you have to pay is willingness – willingness to control your mind thoughts, willingness to submit to God’s discipline, willingness to keep at it even when you seem to make little progress. But after a while – and I don’t mean years and years, but months or even weeks, if you really mean business you will find that what was hard effort has become a great joy.
Because you love God, and know He loves you, the strain quickly goes out of the relationship, and His love excites you – that’s the only word that really describes it – excites you with a longing to be with Him and talk with Him.
I really can’t wait until 10 at night or 7 in the morning to refer some vital matter to God. I need Him too much and too often to be able to leave things until a particular hour of the day.
And His presence is so real that there is no danger that I’ll forget to talk with Him if I don’t make an appointment with Him!
When I find I haven’t thought of God for a good while, I don’t get depressed and guilty about it,
but simply admit to Him that I’m pretty forgetful, which I am, and then remind myself of his faithfulness and love.
Holiness doesn’t depend on changing our jobs,
but in doing for God’s sake what we have been used to doing for our own sake.
I set out first, to think through His divine existence – that He really and truly does objectively exist, as Someone quite other and apart for me, His creature. That was the first, and I thought of Him and all I knew of Him from the Scriptures and in my experience until I was totally convinced that God is. Then I spent hours letting that tremendous truth impress itself deeply on my heart – my feelings, if you like.
There was no studied reasoning to prove the existence of God and no elaborate meditation to enflame my devotion to Him. But I had been in His presence – the living God – and I never wished to leave it again.
To give all for the All. God would give – indeed, has already given all and it is blasphemy to offer less than all to Him.
There and then I laid myself before God and renounced everything that was not of God, and again from that moment to live as if there were no one in the whole world but He and I.
I have set myself simply and solely to know and love God Himself, and to renounce all substitutes and formulas – even religious ones.
And from that day I have tried to walk before God very simply and in faith, in humility and in love for Him, trusting that when I have done what I can, He will do with me what He pleases. I would not take a piece of paper from the floor against His orders, nor from any motive but from my love of Him.
He rebuked us – very gently and lovingly, let me add – for our blindness to the true riches that were within our grasp.
He felt sorry for us, who were like millionaires living on an old age pension. God has so much to give and yet we are content to pick up spiritual trifles
Our blindness and disobedience hinder Him from working in our lives.
They are like a damn built across a flowing stream, stopping its course and cutting off the life-giving supplies of water to the thirsty ground below.
But when God finds a heart that is ready, open and trusting, the obstacle is swept aside, and the pent up waters flow as never before surging into every corner and hidden place, bringing light and joy.
We stop the current mainly by the way we undervalue God’s gifts. Simply to want Him, above every thing else, is the way to set the waters of life flowing.
I think our brother would want me to add that it is not at all a question of doing what he has done but of receiving, by faith, what he has received.
The river flows wherever there’s low land cleared ready before it. The thirsty land does nothing but drink up the goodness.
