In order to benefit from what you have been discovering about Christ our righteousness, these principles must be absorbed more and more so that they become part of your everyday life, and so that your natural, legalistic tendencies will be pushed out of your system. I have learned that I must continually bombard my mind with the grace and goodness of the Lord and His righteousness, or I will revert back automatically to struggling to be righteous in my own self. I hope you will continue to study these things, and to pray without ceasing that the Lord will give you not only the theory, but the experience of receiving Christ and His righteousness. The Lord is giving us an abundant opportunity before probation closes to understand more about His grace and Christ our righteousness.
One of the biggest problems confronting Seventh-day Adventists is not the necessity of obedience, but how to obey. Those who have grown up in the church, and even those who are converts to it, have learned a great deal about what to obey concerning the moral law, diet restrictions, and so forth. The problem we have is in doing all these things. You can tell your children to do and not do certain things, but often they cannot. What do you tell them to do then? How do we obey? This is where we are so negligent.
Many will say that the way you obey is to try harder, but that is putting confidence in the flesh, which the Bible says will not work. Others say the way to obey is to pray more, which is still confidence in the flesh. Others say we must study the Bible more, or study justification by faith more. It is a deception when people come to believe that Christ our righteousness can be nothing more than studying more. Studying a subject more will never benefit you so far as becoming righteous is concerned. We can study and study the subject, and find it very intriguing, but it will only tickle our ears and our brain if we do not apply it to our lives. Christ our righteousness is more than something to study. It is an enabling power that does something for us.
Some believe the way to obedience is to teach people more about how bad their sins are. We think that by telling people how bad smoking and drugs are, they will stop. Many who know how bad these things are never do stop. Education does not necessarily stop people from sinning. It is true that you must have a knowledge of what sin is, but education will not educate them out of sinning.
Still others say that psychology, or psychotherapy, is the way to obedience. People are given a better understanding of their problem, looking at their background and how they got into this fix, explaining why they feel the way they do and why they do what they do. But experience has proven that you can understand all you want to about a person but everything will still not be all right. Many people have catalogued the whole history of their environment, their circumstances, their heredity and everything else, and they still go on the same way. They end up with lots of knowledge about themselves, but they do not obey.
Many have tried all these things for years and have come to the conclusion that none of them work. Thus, they conclude that you cannot be obedient. Some are able to achieve a superficial, external type of obedience, and they call that righteousness. This is a deception and hypocrisy, because it does not come from the heart. They do not delight to do His law. They do it because they have to, because that is the way to be saved.
Somehow the heart must be changed before there is genuine obedience. Righteousness by faith, justification by faith, Christ our righteousness, salvation by faith—whatever term you care to use—will succeed when it is the genuine article. There are all kinds of theories about Christ our righteousness and righteousness by faith; but the genuine article is the only one that will succeed.
Why do human beings fail in all their attempts to be righteous? In the book of Exodus, after God had given Moses His law and provided instruction on many things His people were to do and not do, the Bible says that “Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord, and all the judgments: and all the people answered with one voice, and said, All the words which the Lord hath said will we do.” Exodus 24:3. The Spirit of Prophecy comments on this. “Before there could be any permanent reformation the people must be led to feel their utter inability in themselves.” PP 524. When you have prayed more, and studied more, and tried harder, and gotten more education, and understood more, you still are not obedient. All you discover is your “utter inability” to obey the Lord of yourself, and that is the right conclusion to come to. I cannot perform, but there is a Person Who can do it in me and for me.
The quote continues: “They had broken His law, it condemned them as transgressors, and it provided no way of escape. While they trusted in their own strength and righteousness, it was impossible for them to secure the pardon of their sins; they could not meet the claims of God’s perfect law, and it was in vain that they pledged themselves to serve God.” It was impossible, they tried in vain, and they could not meet the claims of God’s law. The purpose of the old covenant was to show the people that they could not do what they had promised to do.
The quote continues: “It was only by faith in Christ that they could secure pardon of sin and receive strength to obey God’s law. They must cease to rely upon their own efforts for salvation, they must trust wholly in the merits of the promised Saviour, if they would be accepted of God.”
At the beginning of the Christian experience, and even after being in the church for several years, many people think that the burden of obedience is on them, and they keep on trying and trying; but ultimately all they learn is their utter inability to obey. When they finally come to the conclusion that they are unable to obey, many conclude that they are lost. That is not true. When we discover our inabilities, we are finally on the road to righteousness because we might trust Christ now instead of sinful self. This is an important point to come to along the Christian pathway.
People often come to see me, all discouraged because they discovered they cannot obey; and I always say, “Praise the Lord. Now you are making progress.” They say, “You must be insane.” And I say, “Then blessed are the insane.” Many people do not know they cannot. Some go to church for fifty years and still have not discovered that they cannot. They refuse to believe it. It is progress when you have discovered that you cannot. The Lord has done you a favor, and somehow your mind has comprehended it, and we ought to thank Him for that.
The purpose of the old covenant was to teach them their utter inability to obey. They could not do it. The Egyptians thought they could serve their gods by appeasing them, and the Jews got the same idea. When they were led out by Moses, they tried it with Jehovah, but it would not work. The Lord was trying to teach them a lesson, and that was the main purpose for the old covenant.
It seems that the sinner is always saying like a little child, “Leave me alone. I want to do it myself. Just give me more time and I can do it.” It is our nature to be independent, thinking we can do it. But the Bible asks, “Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.” Jeremiah 13:23. We have heard this many, many times, yet we believe it so little. We have been accustomed to doing evil, and we can no more do good than the Ethiopian can change his skin or the leopard its spots. When you discover your utter inability to do good of yourself, you are simply agreeing with the Bible. We should have agreed with it in the first place, but we are slow to learn.
Of himself the sinner is helpless to obey. Jesus said, “without Me, you can do nothing.” John 15:5. There is no power in the sinner to do good unless he is connected to a power outside of himself. And that word connected is crucial. Jesus also said, “I am the Vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit.” John 15:5. The power is in the Vine. If you are attached to Christ, you will bring forth good fruit and much fruit. If you are not attached to Him, you will die. So unless you are connected to Christ in an intimate relationship, you can do nothing. Jesus is the source of all power when it comes to obedience. He said, “All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth.” Matthew 28:18. We all need to receive that power by being plugged into Him, so to speak.
Several years ago as I pastored a church, I discovered one winter’s day that the furnace would not work. I turned on the thermostat and nothing happened. I went around and checked everything, but it just would not work. I checked some of the lights and they would not work, either. My logical brain concluded that there was something wrong with the circuit breakers. So I went back to the little kitchen and reset all the circuit breakers, then I checked the furnace and the lights again, but they still would not work. I decided on one more solution which was to go outside and check the fuse box. Sure enough, I found a fuse the size of my thumb that was burned out. I went down to the hardware store, bought another one, plugged it in, and pulled the switch down; and just then all the lights were burning and the furnace was going full blast. Why? The power had always been available, but we were not plugged in. That was all it took, and nothing more.
When you do wrong, you get after yourself and castigate yourself and go around with a guilty conscience for hours; and you ask, “Why did I ever do that foolish thing?” Imagine a man who has a lamp in his living room that does not work, so he gets angry with the light bulb in the lamp. Maybe he takes a ball bat and smashes the bulb to pieces, or maybe the whole lamp. Then he goes and tells people that someone sold him a bad light bulb. He never bothers to check the circuit breaker, or the fuse box, or to find out if the lamp is plugged into the wall. What would you think of a person like that? We do that spiritually all the time. We look at the lack of power in our lives and we say it is the fault of that sin. We think that the problem is our proneness to sin, and therefore somehow we must stop sinning. Somehow I must start doing right. The answer to getting the light bulb turned on is to get electricity to the lamp. The answer to living the Christ-like life is Christ in the life, or making contact with Him by faith. If I want to do right and stop doing wrong, the solution is to get the right power in my life. I must plug into the power, and then it comes into my life and He enables me to do what I cannot do. A light bulb of itself is helpless to give off light without the electricity. The Bible says that we are helpless. But if I abide in Christ and He abides in me, I can do all things, for He strengthens me.
Castigating and condemning ourselves because we have done wrong is not the solution. It is discovering that when you have done wrong and cannot do right that somehow you have separated yourselves from Christ. You have flipped the switch or pulled the plug. The source of power has been separated from you and you are not living the Christian life, because you cannot obey without Him. Faith is the channel of communication that connects us with the power of Christ. When you find yourself doing wrong, don’t get too upset about what you did, but realize that somehow the wires of your faith have been cut. Someone has flipped the switch off on your faith. Somehow you are not living by faith in contact with Christ.
For some reason it takes a great deal of wisdom to understand this concept. It is the lack of power in the life that makes us deficient, and not the fault of the sin itself. When I have sinned, I must immediately come back into communication with Him, and get plugged back in to the power. I must restore my abiding in Him.
The Spirit of Prophecy has much to say about this. “When we know God as it is our privilege to know Him, our life will be a life of continual obedience.” DA 668. When we read this, we want to give up because we realize that we have not been able to continually obey. The question is not whether you can continually obey, but whether you can continue to know Him and abide in Him. How well do you know Him or how little do you know Him? Are you taking the time to know Him? That is the big problem. When we know God as it is our privilege to know Him, then our life will be a life of continual obedience. Knowing Him is the important factor. The result (continual obedience) will come automatically when I know Him.
“It is His grace that gives man power to obey the laws of God. It is this that enables him to break the bondage of evil habit.” MH 115. What must I be concerned about? My evil habits? No, I must be concerned that I know His grace, that I thrive in it, that I bask in it, that I take hold of it by faith. His grace gives me power. If I am not functioning properly, I must connect to the power, and it is His grace that gives me power. It is this that enables Him to break the bondage of my evil habits. It is not trying harder, or praying more, or studying more, or getting a better understanding of myself. It is His grace, and we know so little about grace.
“When we seek to gain heaven through the merits of Christ, the soul makes progress.” 1SM 364. It is through His merits, and not through our own struggles and attempts, that we make progress in the Christian life. Put the emphasis on the things that you can do, instead of on what you cannot do. We can acknowledge and claim His merits by continually beholding His spotless, unselfish life, and we can concentrate on knowing God, seeking Him with all our hearts. We can seek Him first every day, submitting our wills to the sovereignty of His love, which gets us plugged into the source of power; and we can learn as much as we can about His grace until our lives become permeated with grace. These are things that bless us and enable us to obey.
“Human effort without the merit of Christ is worthless. The plan of salvation is not understood to be that through which divine power is brought to man in order that his human effort may be wholly successful” RH, August 19, 1890. Not partially successful, but wholly successful. This quote may sound confusing the way it is worded. It is really saying that we do not properly understand that salvation can only be achieved when divine power comes into us. When we are truly connected to that power, which is Christ, our human effort will gain the victory over sin. If that power is not in our lives, our human effort is useless.
“By His perfect obedience He has made it possible for every human being to obey God’s commandments.” COL 312. This also speaks of Christ’s merits.
You must look carefully at these things. We think we understand them well, but do we? I must not look at myself, but at His perfect obedience. When I find myself imperfect, not obeying, I must look at His perfection, His obedience, His merits. That is where the power is. It is not in me. I must continue to look to Him, behold His merits, look at His perfection. I must behold Him.
“He came to show man how to obey, how to keep all the commandments. He laid hold of divine power, and this is the sinner’s only hope.” MYP 165. Jesus obeyed by laying hold on the divine power through a continual connection with His Father. We are to obey by a continual connection with Christ. It is this power that is so important, and the power is in Him, not in us. I must reach out by the hand of faith and plug into the power. I do this by thought processes. I choose to think about Him, I choose to read about Him, I choose to behold His righteousness and His merits and His grace. I learn to know Him. By doing this I am plugging into divine power. He has the power, and by gaining a knowledge of Him, seeking to first receive and understand His grace, and then imparting that grace to others. All these things make me a different person.
We are told that “you must take all—Christ, the fullness of all blessing, to abide in your heart, to be your strength, your righteousness, your everlasting helper—to give you power to obey.” SC 70. God so loved the world that He gave Christ. You must take Christ as your everlasting Helper; and “everlasting” in this context means continuously— every second, every moment of the day. You must take Him as your everlasting Helper to give you power to obey.
All of these quotations point to something outside of self whereby you find the power and ability to do what God asks you to do. God never asks us to do something without providing the ability to do it. But to appropriate that power, I must plug in to Him by faith until the power functions in me. Then Christ works out His will inside of me. When we do not obey, it is evident that there is no vital connection with divine power. When I do genuinely obey, I am connected to Him.
We plug into Christ by our daily devotional life, where we allow our mind to focus on Jesus, trusting Him, looking to Him for all our needs, thinking about Him, talking with Him. This changes your life. It is the absence of a devotional life that disconnects us from Him. Having no devotional life is the secret of a sinful life. I have watched my life for a long time and have discovered that when I have plenty of time for a devotional life, my life is much different, and I am much happier, and I am much easier to live with. When I neglect this for any period of time, my old life takes over and I am totally unlike Christ. Don’t come around me then.
When people come to me and tell me how sin is overwhelming them, I simply asked them how long has it been since they plugged in. How long has it been since His power came into them through a vital connection with Him by faith? Every time they are overwhelmed with their sins, it has been quite some time. We can just drift along, hoping things will be different, but there is no other way to be different except by having contact with Him; and the more intimate the contact, and the more lengthy our time with Him, the better. The secret of the Christian life is to abide in Him.
What is it that accomplishes this changed life when you plug in to Jesus? Ellen White recommended that we frequently study the following verse, for here is where power is to be found: “Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.” 2 Peter 1:4. We should memorize this verse. Partaking of the divine nature is where the power is. The power is in divinity, not in self. And there is given unto us precious promises. It is by those promises that we are to partake of the divine nature, and thus to escape the lustful, selfish sins that have corrupted the world. The way I have divinity abiding in me, the way that power functions in me, is through faith in these promises. I must take these promises as though God had made them personally to me, and through these I connect up with God. I become a partaker of His divine nature in which there is so much power. You must do something with the promises.
In the book of Hebrews, we find what you have to do with the promises, or else they do not function in the life. Paul speaks of the children of Israel and how a certain promise did not work for them. “And to whom sware He that they should not enter into His rest, but to them that believed not? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.” Hebrews 3:18. Then Paul says, “Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.” Hebrews 4:1. He made a promise to them of a land of milk and honey, a beautiful place of rest, but they could not enter into it. They could not receive the fulfillment of the promise. Why? Unbelief, the Bible says. The Lord, through Paul, is saying that we must be careful, and even fear, lest by our unbelief we fall short of a promise that has been left to us. Promises are only effective when we have faith in the promises and in the One who promises. We must have faith in Him, and we must believe that He means to do well for us.
“For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end.” Hebrews 3:14. We partake of that divine nature only as we hold our confidence steadfast. Confidence is trust and trust is an aspect of faith. If we hold steadfast our faith and confidence in Him, we will be made partakers of Christ. Notice that it says we are made partakers, not we will be partakers. With faith we are made partakers of Christ. Without that faith we are not made partakers. There must be a confidence in Him, or it does not function.
“Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.” Verse 12. We must be careful not to depart from the living God by unplugging from the power, or severing our connection with Christ.
Faith is the connector and faith functions by believing God’s precious promises. As I trust His promises, something happens in me: I am made a partaker of divine nature. He makes the promise, I believe the promise, and a connection to the power is made by faith; and faith is a channel, or a wire that brings the power all the way from heaven to my life. Over this wire messages can be communicated which come through the devotional life. When the power comes, I am enabled to obey. It is believing those promises and applying them to my life that enables me to function. It is trusting God to perform what He has promised. Abraham believed the promise of God that he would be the father of a great nation, even though he got sidetracked a few times by taking matters into his own hands. It is only when I am connected to Christ by laying hold by faith on something He has promised that I begin to perform.
The big question in obedience is: Am I a believer? There is no doing without believing, there is no performance without faith. There may be performance without faith, but it is man’s and not God’s; and man’s obedience is nothing but filthy rags. It will never be God’s perfect righteousness upon which there is no blemish or stain. Without belief and faith there is no righteousness. Faith brings a connection to righteousness and power and enables the sinner to do what he has not been able to do.
Are you a believer? You say you believe our doctrines, but are you a believer in God’s goodness to you, and are you a believer in all His promises made to you? Do you try His promises? Do you lay hold of them? Do you apply them to your life? Are you really a believer in God’s love for you, that you are special in His eyes? Is your connection strong by having a strong faith in God, or do you have a loose or open connection? When we find ourselves in strange and difficult circumstances in life, we will discover that we really do not have much of a connection.
“But a belief that does not lead to obedience is presumption.” MB 146. If I say I believe but do not obey, I really do not even believe. I do not believe if I do not perform. Poor performance means poor belief and a lack of confidence in God. “Obedience is the fruit of faith.” SC 61. If I truly exercise faith in Christ, obedience will naturally result.
This is where we fail. We keep examining ourselves and wondering why we cannot seem to obey when the real flaw is that we do not believe. I have looked at my own heart too many times and been frustrated over and over again. Why can’t I stop disobeying and start obeying? What is wrong with me? I scrutinize the causes for my bad temper, looking back at what may have happened that day, or what I had not done, and I just get more frustrated. I can see some logic behind this but it does not help me. And after a while, the Spirit of God in His patience asks me how long it has been since I sat down and had a good connection with the Lord. How long has it been since I really found a blessing in prayer, and that I knew I had made contact? Not just praying and reading, but I knew that God was speaking to me. How long has it been since I did more than have a morning watch going through the motions? When you have truly made contact with God, you feed your soul each day and go out feeling bolstered, encouraged, and strong; and all day long a verse, a song, or some precious thought goes through your mind over and over again.
I will never forget when one day, during my morning devotional time, I discovered a quote that says God’s blessing will come by faith when we surrender to Him. That thought went through my mind for forty-eight hours: the blessing will come when we surrender to God. This is how God can communicate with us through the devotional life. When you go to bed at night and can still remember a text or quotation you read that morning, and it still means something to you, and you are still pondering it, and your soul still feeds on it, then you know that God is blessing you and making you stronger. But if five minutes after the morning devotion you cannot remember one thing you read or studied, that is not devotion. That is an empty ceremony and just going through the motions. Somehow you must make contact until an impression is made, and something that God communicates to you sticks with you all through the day.
We can get so wrapped up in trying to obey that we forget that it is faith that leads to obedience. Believing is also obedience, for believing is a good work. “And this is His commandment, That we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as He gave us commandment.” 1 John 3:23. Here we see that God commands us to believe. To obey a commandment is good work. So believing is a good work. Jesus literally said that. “Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent.” John 6:29. This is the work that God requires, that you believe on Him whom He hath sent. In both cases the commandment and work are connected with believing, and we always thought that works and believing were separate. The Bible does not agree with you for it says that a good work is to believe.
When people in spiritual need come to us and ask what they should do, we tell them they must keep the Sabbath and do this and don’t do that. The apostle Paul was not against the Sabbath, or tithing, or missionary activity; but he taught that if you want to be saved there is one thing you must do, and that is to believe. When the keeper of the prison Paul was about to escape from asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” Paul answered, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.” Acts 16:30,31. Believing is a good work. Faith does something for men that other things will not do.
“But without faith it is impossible to please Him.” Hebrews 11:6. It is impossible to please God without faith. You can do all the works you want to, but without faith they are all vanity.
Paul taught that “whatsoever is not of faith is sin.” Romans 14:23. Whatever we do that is not an act of faith is an act of sin. Faith and believing are commands we can do. When we obey by believing we are becoming connected to divine power. When I believe and am connected to Him, then He produces good fruit and good results in my life.
Faith and believing come first, and these we can do. I believe Him because I am inspired by His love for me, by His trustworthiness, and by the testimony of others concerning His faithfulness. As I believe, I lay hold on Him, I plug into the socket, and power comes into my life to obey. I am connected to the One who can obey and I am no longer trusting in myself. Then obedience to all of God’s requirements is possible because the Lord can do all things, and I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. We must make certain that our faith is in Him, and not in our own ability to obey.
Many people have joined the church because they have faith in the church. Many have joined the church because they have faith in the doctrines or the prophecies. Many had faith in the Bible studies they took, or the evangelist. But have you joined the church because you had faith in Jesus? You cannot live the Christ-like life by faith in the church or doctrines or the prophecies. You can only find the power by faith in Jesus. This does not eliminate teachings or doctrines at all. It makes them more important. But I must have my faith in Him, and not in just teachings. I must not segregate theories and ideas from Christ. I must have the truth that is found in Christ.
Only Christ can enable me to obey and no one else can do that. My confidence must not be in things but in a Person, not in ideas but in Jesus. I must serve and believe in the Son of the living God. In Him there is power, strength, hope, and righteousness. He said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” John 14:6. He is the door of the sheepfold, the blessed hope, and in Him are found all the riches of God. He said, “All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth.” Matthew 28:18. Therefore, if I am in Him, I can do all things; but without Him I can do nothing. Faith in Him produces righteousness in me.
“There are many who, though striving to obey God’s commandments, have little peace or joy [they believe in His commandments or they would not strive to obey them]. This lack in their experience is the result of a failure to exercise faith. They walk as it were in a salt land, a parched wilderness. They claim little, when they might claim much; for there is no limit to the promises of God. The Lord would have all His sons and daughters happy, peaceful, and obedient. Through the exercise of faith the believer comes into possession of these blessings.” AA 563.
It is not a matter of striving to do better or to do what is right, and it is not praying to do right. It is through the exercise of faith that the believer comes into possession of these blessings. These blessings include joy, peace, and obedience. The quote continues on: “Through faith, every deficiency of character may be supplied, every defilement cleansed, every fault corrected, every excellence developed.” Do not kick yourself because you fail. Do not keep condemning yourself and criticizing yourself because you are failing. Go and look for the broken circuit. Find out where the switch is that is off, or where the blown fuse is. Get plugged back in! That is the secret of the Christian life. Through faith, “every deficiency of character may be supplied, every defilement cleansed, every fault corrected, every excellence developed.”
This faith is not merely praying, “Lord, help me.” It is laying hold on Christ, literally communicating with Him, and just reaching out and grabbing Him like the woman who touched the hem of His garment. When she did that, Jesus perceived that virtue had gone out of Him. She trusted that He would and could heal her, and that it was His desire to do that. Faith is trusting Christ by thinking of Him, by looking to Him, by abiding in Him, by walking with Him, by talking with Him, and constantly realizing that He is my only hope. This is the kind of faith that accomplishes great things.
This final quote gives us the how of obedience: “As the mind dwells upon Christ the character is molded after divine similitude. The thoughts are pervaded with a sense of His goodness. We contemplate His character and thus He is in all our thoughts. His love encloses us. If we gaze even a moment upon the sun in its meridian glory, when we turn away our eyes, the image of the sun will appear in everything upon which we look. Thus it is when we behold Jesus; everything we look upon reflects His image, the Sun of Righteousness. We cannot see anything else, or talk of anything else. His image is imprinted upon the eye of the soul and affects every portion of our daily life, softening and subduing our whole nature.” TM 388.
As we behold more and more of the glorious character of Jesus, whenever we look at the church we see Jesus instead of all the problems that plague it. When we look at our spouse, we see the image of Christ instead of their defects. Whenever you truly allow yourself to be temporarily blinded by beholding Him in morning worship, everything you see that day will have Christ superimposed upon it. We cannot see anything else, or talk of anything else, and all by looking in faith at Him until He imprints His image upon the mind.
Faith succeeds, because faith beholds. Faith trusts the One who has all power, all righteousness, all glory—the One who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think. Look at Him. Behold Him constantly, and if you do not resist, you cannot avoid being like Him.
May the Lord help us to understand that He does not ask the impossible of weak human beings, and that He makes possible all things He requires of us. He would not frustrate us and torment us with constant failure. He would not be a loving Father if He did that. As He looks down upon us in our frustrating lives, in all our striving and attempts to be righteous, surely He longs to help and bless us.
May we see that there is only One righteous, the Lord Jesus Christ, and that all power is vested in Him. Apart from Him we are helpless, but with Him we can do all things. May the Lord help us to do that which we can do, which is to believe and trust His promises, behold His glorious character, and choose Him to rule over us in love. To every person He has given a measure of faith, and as we by faith lay hold on Jesus and trust in Him and His divine power, He comes to abide in us, and He makes us like Himself.
May God take away our striving to be better, and may He help our unbelief. May we maintain a precious contact with Him, sitting at His feet and plugged into that marvelous power that is able to transform us. May we so behold Jesus that as we turn away, His image is superimposed on all of life. This is my prayer for you, in Jesus’ name.