Daily Fellowship with God
1.
The first and chief need of our Christian life is, Fellowship
with God.
The
Divine life within us comes from God, and is entirely dependent upon
Him. As I need every moment afresh the air to breathe, as the sun
every moment afresh sends down its light, so it is only in direct
living communication with God that my soul can be strong.
The
manna of one day was corrupt when the next day came. I must every day
have fresh grace from heaven, and I obtain it only in direct waiting
upon God Himself. Begin each day by tarrying before God, and letting
Him touch you. Take time to meet God.
2.
To this end, let your first act in your devotions be a setting
yourself still before God. In prayer, or worship, everything depends
upon
faith
and adoration, speaking thus within my heart: "God is. God is
near. God is love, longing to communicate H imself to me. God the
Almighty One, Who worketh all in all, is even now waiting to work in
me, and make Himself known." Take time, till you know God
is very near.
3.
When you have given God His place of honor, glory, and power, take
your place of deepest lowliness, and seek to be filled with the
Spirit of humility. As a creature it is your blessedness to be
nothing, that God may be all in you. As a sinner you are not worthy
to look up to God ; bow in selfabasement. As a saint, let God's love
overwhelm you, and bow you still lower down. Sink down before Him in
humility, meekness, patience, and surrender to His goodness and
mercy. He will exalt you. Oh! take time, to get very low before
God.
4.
Then accept and value your place in Christ Jesus. God delights in
nothing but His beloved Son, and can be satisfied with nothing else
in those who draw nigh to Him. Enter deep into God's holy presence in
the boldness which the blood gives, and in the assurance that in
Christ you are most wellpleasing. In Christ you are within the veil.
You have access into the very heart and love of the Father. This is
the great object of fellowship with God, that I may have more of God
in my life, and that God may see Christ formed in me. Be silent
before God and let Him bless you.
5.
This Christ is a living Person. He loves you with a personal love,
and He looks every day for the personal response of your love. Look
into His face with trust, till His love really shines into your
heart. Make His heart glad by telling Him that you do love Him. He
offers Himself to you as a personal Saviour and Keeper from the power
of sin. Do not ask, can I be kept from sinning, if I keep close to
Him? but ask, can I be kept from sinning, if He always keeps
close to me? and you see at once how safe it is to trust Him.
6.
We have not only Christ's life in us as a power, and His presence
with us as a person, but we have His likeness to be wrought into us.
He is to be formed in us, so that His form or figure, His likeness,
can be seen in us. Bow before God until you get some sense of the
greatness and blessedness of the work to be carried on by God in you
this day. Say to God, "Father, here am I for Thee to give as
much in me of Christ's likeness as I can receive." And wait to
hear Him say, "My child, I give thee as much of Christ as thy
heart is open to receive." The God who revealed Jesus in the
flesh and perfected Him, will reveal Him in thee and perfect thee in
Him. The Father loves the Son, and delights to work out His image and
likeness in thee. Count upon it that this blessed work will be done
in thee as thou waitest on thy God, and boldest fellowship with Him.
7.
The likeness to Christ consists chiefly in two things—the likeness
of His death and resurrection, (Rom. 6: 5). The death of Christ was
the consummation of His humility and obedience, the entire giving up
of His life to God. In Him we are dead to sin. As we sink down in
humility and dependence and entire surrender to God, the power of His
death works in us, and we are made comformable to His death. And so
we know Him in the power of His resurrection, in the victory over
sin, and all the joy and power of the risen life. Therefore
every morning, "present yourselves unto God as those that
are alive from the dead." He will maintain the life He gave, and
bestow the grace to live as risen ones.
8.
All this can only be in the power of the Holy Spirit, who dwells in
you. Count upon Him to glorify Christ in you. Count upon Christ to
increase in you the inflowing of His Spirit. As you wait before God
to realize His presence, remember that the Spirit is in you to reveal
the things of God. Seek in God's presence to have the anointing of
the Spirit of Christ so truly that your whole life may every moment
be spiritual.
9.
As you meditate on this wondrous salvation and seek full fellowship
with the great and holy God, and wait on Him to reveal Christ in you,
you will feel how needful the giving up of all is to receive Him.
Seek grace to know what it means to live as wholly for God as Christ
did. Only the Holy Spirit Himself can teach you what an entire
yielding of the whole life to God can mean. Wait on God to shew you
in this what you do not know. Let every approach to God, and every
request for fellowship with Him be accompanied by a new,
very definite, and entire surrender to Him to work in you.
10.
"By faith" must here, as through all Scripture, and all the
spiritual life, be the keynote. As you tarry before God, let it be in
a deep quiet faith in Him, the Invisible One, who is so near, so
holy, so mighty, so loving. In a deep, restful faith too, that all
the blessings and powers of the heavenly life are around you, and in
you. Just yield yourself in the faith of a perfect trust to the Ever
Blessed Holy Trinity, to work out all God's purpose in you. Begin
each day thus in fellowship with God, and God will be all in all to
you.
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