The Principle Of Holding On Exemplified By Christ's Life

Luke 9:62  And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.

Not only did our LORD Insist on this...

He Emphasized it in His life. 

For all His meekness, Nothing Could Divert Him from the Allotted Path of His vocation. 

Think, for instance, of that day when He was summoned to the bed of Jairus' daughter. 

In the crowded street a woman touched Him, and He instantly felt that "virtue had gone out of him." 

But the original is far more striking in the light it sheds upon the Lord...

He felt that the Power had gone out of Him. 

All of us are familiar with such seasons, when Power seems to be utterly exhausted. 

In such seasons we cannot face the music; the grasshopper becomes a Burden. 

And the Beautiful thing about our LORD is how, after such an experience as that...

He Held To It In Quiet Trust On GOD. 

He knew, in all its strength, the recurring temptation to give over. 

He had to Reinforce His Will Continually for the Great Triumph of Continuing. 

Through days of weakness...

Through seasons of exhaustion...

Through hours when His soul was sorrowful unto death...

He Held To The Task Given Him Of GOD. 

It is Very Easy to Hold On when we are Loved and Honored and Appreciated...

When our strength is equal to our problem...

When the birds are singing in the trees...

But to Hold To It when All the sky is Dark is the Finest Heroism in the world,...

And that was the Heroism of the LORD.  

~George Morrison 

All Things Are Possible To Him That Believeth!

The "all things" do not always come simply for the asking, for the reason that God is ever seeking to teach us the way of faith... 

And in our training in the faith life there must be room for the trial of faith, the discipline of faith, the patience of faith, the courage of faith,...

And often many stages are passed before we really realize what is the end of faith, namely, the victory of faith.

Real moral fiber is developed through discipline of faith. 

You have made your request of God, but the answer does not come. What are you to do?

Keep on believing God's Word; never be moved away from it by what you see or feel, and thus as you stand steady, enlarged power and experience is being developed. 

The fact of looking at the apparent contradiction as to God's Word and being unmoved from your position of faith make you stronger on every other line.

Often God delays purposely, and the delay is just as much an answer to your prayer as is the fulfillment when it comes.

In the lives of all the great Bible characters, God worked thus. 

Abraham, Moses and Elijah were not great in the beginning, but were made great through the discipline of their faith...

And only thus were they fitted for the positions to which God had called them.

For example, in the case of Joseph whom the Lord was training for the throne of Egypt, we read in the Psalms:

The word of the Lord tried him.

It was not the prison life with its hard beds or poor food that tried him...

But it was the word God had spoken into his heart in the early years concerning elevation and honor which were greater than his brethren were to receive...

It was this which was ever before him, when every step in his career made it seem more and more impossible of fulfillment...

Until he was there imprisoned, and all in innocence, while others who were perhaps justly incarcerated, were released, and he was left to languish alone.

These were hours that tried his soul, but hours of spiritual growth and development, that, "when his word came" (the word of release), found him fitted for the delicate task of dealing with his wayward brethren, with a love and patience only surpassed by God Himself.

No amount of persecution tries like such experiences as these. 

When God has spoken of His purpose to do, and yet the days go on and He does not do it, that is truly hard...

But it is a discipline of faith that will bring us into a knowledge of God which would otherwise be impossible.

The Lesson Of Service

John 13:4  He riseth from supper, and laid aside his garments; and took a towel, and girded himself.

John13:5  After that he poureth water into a bason, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded.

Serving is not an easy lesson to learn. 

But it is a lesson we Must Learn, if ever we would Become Like our Master. 

Jesus did not come to Be Served, but to Serve. 

He Served to the Uttermost, just as He Loved to the Uttermost. 

Any Service that Needed To Be Done For Another, He did as Naturally and as Simply as He breathed! 

He Loved people, and was Interested in them and was Ready always to be Helpful to them. 

It Never Mattered what the service was - whether it was the Saving of a soul, the Curing of a grievous sickness, or the Giving of a cup of water. 

He did the Least service as Graciously and as Divinely as the greatest! 

The washing of feet was the lowliest service any man could do for another. 

It was the work of the lowliest slave. 

Yet Jesus Without Hesitation, did this service for His own disciples. 

Thus He Taught them that Nothing anyone may ever need to have done by another, is Unfit for the Holiest hands.  

We begin to be like Christ, only when we Begin To Love Others Enough To Serve Them, regardless of the lowliness of the particular service.

One day a stranger entered an artist's studio in Milan. 

The artist was busy within. 

He was working on a painting of the head of Christ and appeared to take no notice of the stranger. 

At last he broke the silence, looked at the man and asked: "Sir, does it look like Jesus, or not?"

There Is No Surer Test Of The Genuineness Of Christian Life, Than In This Matter Of Serving Others. 

In serving others, we should inquire, "Are we like Jesus, or not?" 

We are too careful of our dignity. 

When we see the Son of God washing His disciples feet, we should be Ashamed Ever To Ask Whether Anything another may need to have done, is Too Menial for us to do. 

A king may do the lowliest kindness to the poorest peasant in his realm, and his Honor will only be Enhanced by it.

O blessed Jesus, when I see You bending, Girt as a servant, at Your servants' feet...

Love, lowliness, might - in zeal all blending, To wash their feet, and make them meet To share Your feast - I know not to adore...

Whether Your Humbleness, or Glory more!

~J. R. Miller

I Trust In Thy Word!

Psalm 119:42  So shall I have wherewith to answer him that reproacheth me: for I trust in thy word.

Just in proportion in which we believe that God will do just what He has said, is our faith strong or weak.

Faith has nothing to do with feelings, or with impressions, with improbabilities, or with outward appearances.

If we desire to couple them with faith, then we are no longer resting on the Word of God because faith needs nothing of the kind. 

Faith rests on the naked Word of God. 

When we take Him at His Word, the heart is at peace.

God delights to exercise faith, first for blessing in our own souls, then for blessing in the Church at large, and also for those without. 

But this exercise we shrink from instead of welcoming. 

When trials come, we should say: "My Heavenly Father puts this cup of trial into my hands, that I may have something sweet afterwards."

Trials are the food of faith. 

Oh, let us leave ourselves in the hands of our Heavenly Father! 

It is the joy of His heart to do good to all His children.

But trials and difficulties are not the only means by which faith is exercised and thereby increased. 

There is the reading of the Scriptures, that we may by them acquaint ourselves with God as He has revealed Himself in His Word.

Are you able to say, from the acquaintance you have made with God, that He is a lovely Being? 

If not, let me affectionately entreat you to ask God to bring you to this, that you may admire His gentleness and kindness, that you may be able to say how good He is, and what a delight it is to the heart of God to do good to His children.

Now the nearer we come to this in our inmost souls, the more ready we are to leave ourselves in His hands, satisfied with all His dealings with us. 

And when trial comes, we shall say: "I will wait and see what good God will do to me by it, assured He will do it." 

Thus we shall bear an honorable testimony before the world, and thus we shall strengthen the hands of others.

~George Mueller

LORD Open Our Eyes That We May See!

2Ki 6:17  And Elisha prayed, and said, LORD, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the LORD opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.

This is the prayer we need to pray for ourselves and for one another, “Lord, open our eyes that we may see”...

For the world all around us, as well as around the prophet, is full of God’s horses and chariots, waiting to carry us to places of glorious victory. 

And when our eyes are thus opened, we shall see in all events of life, whether great or small, whether joyful or sad, a “chariot” for our souls.

Everything that comes to us becomes a chariot the moment we treat it as such...

And, on the other hand, even the smallest trial may be a powerful car to crush us into misery or despair if we consider it.

It lies with each of us to choose which they shall be. 

It all depends, not upon what these events are, but upon how we take them. 

If we lie down under them, and let them roll over us and crush us, they become powerful cars...

But if we climb up into them, as into a car of victory, and make them carry us triumphantly onward and upward, they become the chariots of God. 

~Hannah Whitall Smith

The Lord cannot do much with a crushed soul, hence the adversary’s attempt to push the Lord’s people into despair and hopelessness over the condition of themselves, or of the church. 

It has often been said that a dispirited army goes forth to battle with the certainty of being beaten. 

We heard a missionary say recently that she had been invalided home purely because her spirit had fainted, with the consequence that her body sunk also. 

We need to understand more of these attacks of the enemy upon our spirits and how to resist them. 

If the enemy can dislodge us from our position, then he seeks to “wear us out” by a prolonged siege, so that at last we, out of sheer weakness, let go the cry of victory.

Dan 7:25  And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.

GOD Raises Up Vessels In Relation To HIS Full Purpose

                                                                                   
Another thing is this: do, dear friends, adjust your minds to this fact, that God raises up instruments and vessels in relation to His FULL purpose. 

And those instruments and vessels are not something in themselves, and their ministry is not just bound up with them. 

Ezekiel's vocation, God's choice of him, God's raising of him up, God's using of him, and his committal to the Spirit was related to a people. 

Related to a people; it was not his private ministry, his private anointing. 

The people were going to be held responsible for that ministry. 

That ministry, if it was going to be justified and vindicated, would be found in a people.

You must not say, "Oh, that's So-and-so's ministry," or "That is the ministry that they give at such and such a place, that is a line of teaching, or that is his particular emphasis." 

Beware, beware. 

They could have said that of Ezekiel, "Well, that's Ezekiel's ministry."

He's quite at liberty to fulfill it and carry it out, let him do it, and when he's done it, well, room will be made for someone else; for others, and that's that! and write it off. 

Anything that God has given of light or ministry that has been under the Holy Spirit is not for a time, it's for eternity. 

It is not private, it is for the people of God, and the people of God who come to the knowledge of it are going to be held responsible for it. 

Just dare not pass it off like that and say, "Well, that's just their emphasis, their line of teaching." 

Rather say, Is that of God? 

Has God given that? 

Are they any marks or evidences of the anointing in that? 

Is the Lord with that?

If so, for all time and eternity, you're responsible. 

It's in a people that it's to be found. 

They may refuse. 

They may forbear and it may not be found to work out. 

All right, then what happened in the case of Ezekiel will be repeated. 

For in one of his visions of God, he saw the glory being lifted away from Jerusalem and departing far away. 

And that's a terrible thing for the glory to depart - the glory to depart.

Well, that's the general situation. 

I said this afternoon I have a burden, and I must get my burden off. 

Forgive me if I seem to be too emphatic, but it's very necessary, dear friends, for us to seriously face this thing. 

God help us if we are not in line with and in sympathy with the Holy Spirit, there's no help for us and no hope for us. 

The great need of our time is for the people of God to be caught up again in a mighty energetic movement of the Spirit of God. 

But the Spirit has His ways and He has His grounds.

Well now, I have stated that in this inclusive way, that here we are confronted with this: on the one side, the Spirit is the spirit of a purpose. 

A purpose! On the other side the Spirit must have a committed vessel or committed vessels. 

And I might add to that that it is not always - not always - individual. 

God has many times raised up a little company of people in which He has deposited His treasure and made it the example for others. 

So I say that because some of you might say, "Well, we're not all Ezekiels. We can't all be Ezekiels." 

And I repeat: this is a relative or a related matter; this is not a personal thing at all.

So we come face to face with the major factor and distinctive feature of the purpose of God:

~T. Austin Sparks

It Is More Blessed To Give Than To Receive!

Act 20:35  I have shewed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.

How shall we know the Difference between earthly and heavenly love? 

The one Centers on ourselves and is partly our ego seeking its Own gratification. 

The other Reaches Out to God and to people and Finds Its Joy in Glorifying Him and Blessing them. 

Love is Unselfishness, and the love that is not unselfish is not divine. 

How much do we give to others, and how much do we take for ourselves?

What is the center of our being?...Ourselves, or our Lord and His people and work?

May the Lord help us to know more fully the meaning of that great truth, It is more blessed to give than to receive.

Mark 8:35  For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it.

Have you found some precious treasure?

Pass it on.

Have you found some holy pleasure?

Pass it on.

Giving out is twice possessing,

Love will double every blessing,

On to higher service pressing,

Pass it on

~A. B. Simpson

Friendship Trust

John 14:1  Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.

It should be pointed out that no revealed truth becomes automatically effective. 

The effect any truth has upon us depends upon our attitude toward it. 

First it must be accepted in active faith and received into our minds as completely trustworthy and beyond dispute. 

It must become a kind of dye to give color to all of our thinking and praying. 

The more perfect our friendship with God becomes the simpler will our lives be. 

Those formalities that are so necessary to keep a casual friendship alive may be dispensed with when true friends sit in each other’s presence. 

True friends trust each other.

True friendship is based on mutual trust. 

If we can trust Christ for salvation, why can't we trust God in all areas of life? 

There is no alternative.

~A. W. Tozer

Lord, how often my heart is troubled because I don't trust You. I am letting go and trustfully sinking into Your arms.

True Christians KNOW When They Have Touched Light Or Darkness!

Anyone - and this is the test - who really has the Spirit is Very Sensitive to light and Very Sensitive to darkness. 

 

They know quite well about the BIG Division that GOD has made... 

 

And, when they touch Anything that belongs to the darkness realm, they feel the darkness in their own spirit...

 

They know they have touched darkness, they know they have come into another realm. 

 

That is a work of the Spirit, and a very important work indeed.

 

These are marks of the Spirit, judging which is which and what is what, what belongs to this realm and what belongs to that...

 

And these things are set apart...

 

So that it is something quite abnormal if darkness comes into the day or light into the night. 

 

It is not the ordinary course of things at all. 

 

Do you see the point? 

 

You can have those differences of kingdom or realm within your own family, your own household...

 

And there can be NO fellowship at all because there is the division which is made by the Holy Spirit Himself. 

 

~T. Austin Sparks~

 

The Last Pang, And Groan, And Tear!

                                      
The Christian also looks to the end of afflictions! 

The end may sometimes come in this world. 

In reference to this, the utmost that the believer can be sure of is that they will end in God's time.

They may last for his whole life.

The sickness which afflicts his body may be unto death.

The loss which he has sustained in his property may be irreparable,

And poverty may go down with him to the grave.

The trial which beclouds and distresses his spirits may be his lot for life.

But on the other hand, they may not! 

God may be bringing him "through fire and through water to bring him out into a wealthy place."

But the Christian leaves all this in the hand of God, and endeavors to maintain a hope which shall save him from despondency...

Checked at the same time by a reverence that guards him from unwarranted presumption.

But if the end of the trial should not come in this world-it will come in the next world...

When they will not only forever cease, but leave an eternal blessing behind!

I reckon that the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us!

Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory!

Four things are set forth in these passages:

1. Our afflictions will have a termination! 

This is sweet.

They are to End-they are Not To Last Forever!  

The last pang, and groan, and tear are at hand-and how near, the Christian never knows!

2. Our afflictions are not to end like those of the brute creation-in the grave merely, but in Heaven!

The last pang, and groan, and tear are to usher in that blessed state of which it is so beautifully said...

The Lamb who is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters...

And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes!

Heaven shall terminate all the afflictions of the righteous! 

3. Heaven is so glorious, that the first view of its scenes, and the first moment of its enjoyment-shall make amends for the longest life of the most protracted and intense sufferings!

4. The sufferings of our earthly pilgrimage will enhance and increase the felicities of Heaven!

Their submissive endurance...

The graces which they call into exercise...

The sanctification which they promote...

The heavenly temper which they cultivate...

Will be the means of ripening the spirit, and making it fit for its eternal inheritance!

Every tear that is shed...

Every groan that is heaved...

Every loss that is sustained...

Every moment of suffering that is endured...

Every disappointment that is experienced...

Which is borne with patience, with resignation, with unwearied holiness...

Will not only be followed with millions of ages of indescribable intense happiness...

But will prepare the soul for its enjoyment, and add something to its weight and its luster!

~J. A. James

The Silent Influence In Parental Conduct

Parents have a great power of influence over the minds and hearts of their children. 

Their children are almost continually with them-they are seen by them in nearly all they do, in their habitual conduct, and character at home. 

They are heard in what they say; seen in what they do; studied in all their behavior; by little ears, and eyes and minds, which are scarcely ever closed!

The child's heart is soft and pliable to a father's or a mother's influence. 

Their constant influence has been molding him from the dawn of reason. 

What, then, ought to be the parents' behavior at home?

The whole cultivation, and direction, and management of a child's mind, from the very dawn of reason, should be carried on with special reference to the formation of Christian character. 

This should be the one thing, to which all other things should be subordination.

The silent influence in parental conduct is far greater, either for good or for evil, than most parents are aware of. 

They teach by what they say, they influence by what they do; and also by what they do not say, and do not perform.

The pious parents, who embody a meek, benevolent, ardent and consistent godliness in their character, exert a tremendous influence over the minds of their children!

But oh! the dreadful contrast in the case of those parents who are characterized by ungodly dispositions, worldly associations, mirthful and extravagant living, trifling conversation, and lack of all seriousness and spirituality.

Oh! what can be expected from such parents-but children who regard their religion with disgust?

Every man is best known at home. 

Parents are ever doing something to prejudice their children in favor of true religion-or to prejudice them against it; 

Doing something to draw them into the church-or to drive them into the world;

Lending a helping hand to lead then to heaven-or taking them by the hand and leading them to Hell.

Parents! Must you employ your influence in ruining the souls of your children-and sending them to perdition? 

Oh! tremble at the interview you must have with them at the day of judgment, and the dialog you must hold with them forever in the bottomless pit!!

~J. A. James

A Striking Solution Of Samson's Riddle

Psalm 119:67  Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept thy word.

Psalm 119:71  It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes.

Psalm 119:75  I know, O LORD, that thy judgments are right, and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me.

This is the will of God, even our sanctification.

And that afflictive dispensations are the appointed means for promoting that end...

The divine Word abundantly testifies: "He chastens us for our profit, to make us partakers of His holiness." 

May we not, then, truly say, "Happy is the man whom God corrects." 

Blessed is the man whom You chasten, and teach out of Your law.

1. By afflictions we gain much knowledge of ourselves...

When corrupt nature is vexed, it shows its real self. 

As in tempestuous weather, the chinks and openings in the roofs of our houses are most sensibly perceived...

So in sharp afflictions we learn our own defects, weaknesses and sins.

2. Afflictions tend to wean us from the world...

When in uninterrupted health and prosperity, we are apt to be too much pleased with our present condition...

And to lose sight of the crown of glory and the everlasting mansions above...

The loud alarm of affliction rouses us from the enchanting delusion! 

The violence of a tempest impels the mariner to long the more earnestly for the haven of rest.

3. Afflictions serve to quicken our affections to the Lord Jesus Christ...  

While in ease and tranquility, a spirit of lethargy too often pervades the mind in regard to Christ and the blessings of His salvation. 

But, when the tides of distress and sorrow come rolling in upon us, we are willing, we are glad to seek rest in Him who is our only hope and Savior in times of trouble.

On all these, and many other accounts, I hope I can say, It is good for me that I have been afflicted. 

Yes, thanks to my heavenly Father for the sharpest pains I have felt!

In truly sanctified afflictions we have a striking solution of Samson's riddle. 

How often, and how remarkably is it explained and fulfilled in the experience of the saints in times of distress!

Out of the eater, came something to eat.

Out of the strong, came something sweet." Judges 14:14
 
How blessed is it that He who is infinitely wise and inconceivably kind, should choose our inheritance for us! 

And how does it befit us to acquiesce entirely in His appointment!

Good when He gives, supremely good, Nor less when He denies...

Afflictions from His sovereign hand Are blessings in disguise!

The Lord has just removed my dearly loved boy, perhaps to teach me that He has a sovereign right and supreme claim to my heart. 

Amen, even so Lord Jesus!

Take my poor heart, and let it be Forever closed to all but Thee...

O seal my heart, and let me wear That pledge of love forever there. 

~John Fawcett

Elijah's Spirit Of Obedience

Then take another scene in the life of Elijah, namely, his last journey in company with Elisha, the record of which we have in 2 Kings 2.

Elijah said to Elisha, "Tarry here, I pray thee; for the Lord hath sent me as far as Bethel."

Elisha refused to remain and they went to Bethel.

Again Elijah said, "Elisha, tarry here, I pray thee; for the Lord hath sent me to Jericho."

Elisha again refused to be dismissed and they two went to Jericho.

Then the same acts are repeated in the last step.

Now in all that you have a further mark of Elijah's abandonment to the Lord's interests.

He comes before us in the terms of a servant of the Lord under orders: "the Lord hath sent me", "the Lord hath sent me", "the Lord hath sent me."

He is moving on steadily by a progressive, spiritual advance.

He is moving on by his abandonment to the Lord's will, the Lord's command, the Lord's orders as to a servant. 

The point is that as a result of his obedience and perfect response of heart to every repeated, consecutive, progressive command of the Lord he eventually reached heavenly fulness... 

"The Lord hath sent me" Well, he will take that part of the journey. 

The Lord has said nothing beyond that, but He has made it clear that for the present so-and-so is His will. 

When that is accomplished the Lord says again, Now the next step is so-and-so. 

Nothing is given beyond that, but when that step is taken then the Lord is able to reveal the next step, and once revealed, in the obedience of a true servant, it is immediately followed. 

Each step leads to something else.

Each step of obedience makes fuller revelation and deeper meaning possible. 

Each response to the Lord leads into a greater fullness of the Lord. 

Thus, in that way of instant obedience to the will of the Lord as it is revealed bit by bit, step by step, course by course, Elijah at last reaches the point where he is caught up by a whirlwind into heaven, he reaches heavenly fullness.

Do you want to know the way to heavenly fullness? 

That is the way.

It is abandonment to the Lord in unquestioning obedience, the Lord having His place.

If the Lord says He wants a thing, then He has a right to what He wants...

His rights are bound up with my giving Him that. 

If the Lord wants me here or there, wants me to do this or that, then the Lord has some interest in that... 

The Lord is going to secure something by it. 

It is not a question as to whether it is convenient for me to go to Jericho, or Bethel, or Gilgal today... 

Or how it serves my interests... 

But solely of the Lord's pleasure. 

If the Lord has something invested in that, the only consideration for me is that the Lord should have my obedience to get what He is after. 

That is jealousy for the Lord... 

And how that leads to ever growing fullness, to the heavenly fulness at last!

The Lord does not ask us to take the whole course in one bound. 

He graduates His requirements: today so much, tomorrow so much. 

But as He makes known His will we must remember that He is not doing it, in the first instance, for our good, but for His Own ends... 

To get His Own rights, and our good is always bound up with the Lord coming into His place. 

You may take any spiritual crisis in your life and, if you analyze it, you will prove that to be the principle. 

When you have come to a place with the Lord, where a crisis has been reached... 

And in that situation have pleaded with the Lord to do something... 

Asked the Lord, prayed to the Lord for something which would be for your good... 

Am not I right in saying that you have not found the Lord answering in the way you expected. 

His power has been restrained until you have come to the point where you have said, Nevertheless, not my will but Thine. 

If this cannot be for Thy glory, I am content, do not grant it; Thy glory is to govern this hour.

It is in that way that you have got a clear path through with the Lord.

But that principle is wrought into us.

It is not a pretense, it has to be a very real working law, by which all self interest is brought to death and the Lord becomes the sole object of our desire.

Then we get a clear way through.

Is that not true?

How often we have been held up on that very thing.

We have been praying with our own interests and ends in view, and the Lord has not come in on that ground at all.

He has waited until we have changed the position and come on to His ground.

So you see that Elijah right through his life embodies this principle of jealousy for the Lord's interests. 

~T. Austin Sparks

Principles For Dying To Selfishness

Humiliation is the very character of the Christian life, and we must appreciate every opportunity of walking in humility. 

Hence when reproaches, unkind treatment, poverty, loneliness, persecution, mental distresses, seeming failure in our work, disappointments, deep perplexities, or any disagreeable thing comes to us, we are to calmly face these things, as appropriate occasions for self-denial. 

We see the omnipotence of God rule over us in our circumstances. 

We can thereby in these humiliations more clearly manifest the character of Christ and walk in the will of God.

Another effectual principle for self-denial is to be exceedingly careful not to receive human honors or praise into our hearts. 

If we are worthy of having enemies, who will seek opportunities of humiliating us, we will also have some friends who will love and honor us. 

As a rule, the more bitter our enemies are, the stronger our friends will love us, and there will be times when we will be honored in spite of ourselves. 

But if we open our hearts to receive this honor and in our thoughts feed upon it as a social honey...or if we allow human praise to inflate our thoughts, it will instantly breed a human self-esteem, and this becomes a hot-bed of the self-righteous pride.

It requires great humiliation and divine reconciliation for evangelists, preachers, teachers, and singers, and writers, not to stumble and fall at this point.

In everything we are to seek nothing for our own selfish purposes, and seek rather the will of God in everything we think and do. 

This is to become a daily habit of our motives and intentions...

To distrust our fleshly impulses...

To look to the Scriptures for the most minute guidance in all things.

2Ti 3:16  All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:

Mark 8:34  And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

It is only when we are daily crucified to the carnal nature that we can bear our daily cross in the true spirit of our Master. 

It is by the denial or death of sinful selfishness that we enter the state of perfect obedience in which the daily trials and crosses can be borne in deep fellowship with Jesus. 

The very order of the words our Saviour uses, indicates principles for our daily experience....

Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

Here we have:

First, an attitude of crucifixion of the carnal nature, the mortification of the flesh...

Then the enlightened soul bearing its daily sufferings and hindrances by faith...

Which brings it into a better sustained fellowship with Christ.

It is this daily cross which assists in our practical sanctification, according to our love of obedience for the glory of God.

~G. D. Watson