Sunday, March 31, 2013

Chap. 90---The Closer, the Safer


"Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye
sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded." James 4:8.

   “Draw nigh to God.” How? By secret, earnest examination of your own
heart, by childlike, heartfelt, humble dependence upon God, making known all
your weakness to Jesus, and by confessing your sins.
  
   We cannot draw nigh to God and behold His loveliness and compassion
without realizing our defects and being filled with a desire to rise higher. “And
he will draw nigh to you.” The Lord will draw nigh to him who confesses to his
brethren the wrongs he has done them, and then comes to God in humility and
contrition.

   He who feels his own danger is on the watch lest he shall grieve the Holy
Spirit and then draw away from God because he knows that He is not pleased
with his course of action. How much better and safer it is to draw nigh to God,
that the pure light shining from His Word may heal the wounds that sin has made
in the soul. The closer we are to God, the safer we are, for Satan hates and fears
the presence of God.

   Draw nigh to Him by prayer, by contemplation, by reading His Word. When
He draws nigh to you, He lifts up for you a standard against the enemy. Let us
take courage; for the enemy cannot pass this standard.

   If we draw nigh to God, individually, then don’t you see what the result will
be? Can’t you see that we will draw nigh to one another? We cannot draw nigh
to God, and come to the same cross, without our hearts being blended together
in perfect unity, answering the prayer of Christ that they may be one as He is one
with the Father. And therefore we should seek in spirit, in understanding, in faith,
that we may be one, that God may be glorified in us as He is glorified in the Son;
and that God shall love us as He loves the Son.

   The soul that loves God, loves to draw strength from Him by constant
communion with Him. When it becomes the habit of the soul to converse with
God, the power of the evil one is broken; for Satan cannot abide near the soul
that draws nigh unto God."

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