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We know how the Epistle to the Hebrews gathers up all its teaching in that wonderful promise, "the God of peace perfect you in every good work." Peter does the same thing here: "The God of all grace perfect, stablish, strengthen you." God Himself is to be the one object of our trust, day by day; as we think of our work, of our needs, of our life and all our hearts desire, God Himself must be the one object of our hope and trust.Just as God is the centre of the universe, the one source of its strength, the one Guide that orders and controls its movements, so God must have the same place in the life of the believer. With every new day the first and chief thought ought to be—God, God alone, can fit me this day to live as He would have me.
And what is now to be our position towards this God? Do we not feel that the first thought of every day ought to be the humble placing of ourselves in His hands to confess our absolute helplessness, and to yield ourselves in childlike surrender to receive from Him the fulfilment of such promises as these: "The God of peace perfecting you in every good work": "the God of all grace perfecting, stablishing, strengthening you"?
Some of us have learned in the section on "The Secret of Adoration, how absolutely indispensable it is to meet God every morning and give Him time to reveal Himself and to take charge of our life for the day. Is not this just what we have to do with these wonderful words of Peter? Until it be an understood thing between God and ourselves: Blessed Father, in view of the life and work of this new day, my heart is resting on Thee; my hope is in Thy Word: "The God of peace perfect you in every good work": "the God of all grace perfect, stablish, strengthen you."
By Thy grace may this henceforth be the spirit in which I awake every morning to go out to my work, humbly trusting in the word: "God shall Himself perfect you. The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me."
Ever blessed Father, be pleased, I beseech Thee, to open the eyes of Thy children to the vision that even as Thy Son was perfected for evermore, so Thou art waiting to work in each of us that work of perfecting Thy saints in which Thy glory will be seen.
My heart, be thou stirred up to persevere in the holy war, for the reward of victory is great. Today we eat of heavenly food which falls about our camps; the food of the wilderness, the food which comes from heaven, the food which never fails the pilgrims to Canaan. But there is reserved for us in Christ Jesus a still higher degree of spiritual life and a food for it which, as yet, is hidden from our experience. In the golden pot which was laid up in the ark there was a portion of manna hidden away, which though kept for ages never grew stale. No one ever saw it; it was hid with the Ark of the Covenant, in the Holy of Holies. Even so, the highest life of the believer is hid with Christ, in God. We shall come to it soon. Being made victorious through the grace of our LORD Jesus, we shall eat of the Kings meat and feed upon royal dainties. We shall feed upon Jesus. He is our "hidden manna," as well as the manna of the wilderness. He is all in all to us in our highest, as well as in our lowest, estate. He helps us to fight, gives us the victory, and then is Himself our reward. LORD, help me to overcome.
There are murmurers amongst Christians now, as there were in the camp of Israel of old. There are those who, when the rod falls, cry out against the afflictive dispensation. They ask, “Why am I thus afflicted? What have I done to be chastened in this manner?” A word with thee, O murmurer! Why shouldst thou murmur against the dispensations of thy heavenly Father? Can he treat thee more hardly than thou deservest? Consider what a rebel thou wast once, but he has pardoned thee! Surely, if he in his wisdom sees fit now to chasten thee, thou shouldst not complain. After all, art thou smitten as hardly as thy sins deserve? Consider the corruption which is in thy breast, and then wilt thou wonder that there needs so much of the rod to fetch it out? Weigh thyself, and discern how much dross is mingled with thy gold; and dost thou think the fire too hot to purge away so much dross as thou hast? Does not that proud rebellious spirit of thine prove that thy heart is not thoroughly sanctified? Are not those murmuring words contrary to the holy submissive nature of Gods children? Is not the correction needed? But if thou wilt murmur against the chastening, take heed, for it will go hard with murmurers. God always chastises his children twice, if they do not bear the first stroke patiently. But know one thing—“He doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men.” All his corrections are sent in love, to purify thee, and to draw thee nearer to himself. Surely it must help thee to bear the chastening with resignation if thou art able to recognize thy Fathers hand. For “whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons.” “Murmur not as some of them also murmured and were destroyed of the destroyer.”
Divine omniscience affords no comfort to the ungodly mind, but to the child of God it overflows with consolation. God is always thinking upon us, never turns aside his mind from us, has us always before his eyes; and this is precisely as we would have it, for it would be dreadful to exist for a moment beyond the observation of our heavenly Father. His thoughts are always tender, loving, wise, prudent, far-reaching, and they bring to us countless benefits: hence it is a choice delight to remember them. The Lord always did think upon his people: hence their election and the covenant of grace by which their salvation is secured; he always will think upon them: hence their final perseverance by which they shall be brought safely to their final rest. In all our wanderings the watchful glance of the Eternal Watcher is evermore fixed upon us—we never roam beyond the Shepherds eye. In our sorrows he observes us incessantly, and not a pang escapes him; in our toils he marks all our weariness, and writes in his book all the struggles of his faithful ones. These thoughts of the Lord encompass us in all our paths, and penetrate the innermost region of our being. Not a nerve or tissue, valve or vessel, of our bodily organization is uncared for; all the littles of our little world are thought upon by the great God.
There is a warning for us in that dream, just as it stands: It is possible for the best years of our life, the best experiences, the best victories won, the best service rendered, to be swallowed up by times of failure, defeat, dishonor, uselessness in the kingdom. Some mens lives of rare promise and rare achievement have ended so. It is awful to think of, but it is true. Yet it is never necessary.
When Nicodemus came to Christ in the dead of night, he was both puzzled and amazed to be told that he must be ‘born from above’ to see the kingdom of God. How could he, personally, become a son of the Father? The answer to this question is found in the process of adoption. However, as Nicodemus soon realised, this cannot be understood by natural means.
In our society, an adoption places someone who is not a biological son in the position of a natural born heir. However, the meaning of adoption in the Scripture is much more than this. New birth is the inheritance of the adoption. By adoption, we are born as sons of God. This is the Father’s desire, and the ‘kind intention of His will’. We are ‘predestined to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself’. It was always the Father’s desire that we be ‘born from above’, receiving the life of Christ, by the process of adoption.
This process of adoption is only possible ‘through Jesus Christ’. And for this reason, we could not receive the inheritance of new birth until Jesus came in the flesh. God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. By offering, Jesus redeemed us and opened up a way for us to be ‘born from above’ as sons of the Father in Him. When we are born as sons of the Father, we become heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ.
Let us take time to consider our prayer life. The disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray, as John also taught his disciples. Prayer is the foundation of our relationship with the Lord. And it has been so for disciples of every generation since the beginning. Prayer can be an instinctive response to crisis where we cry out like Peter, ‘Lord, save me!’ As helpful as this is, this would only be a beginning. We are learning to pray throughout the whole course of our lives.
Jesus began His ministry with a season of prayer and fasting. For forty days He waited before the Lord, praying daily, presenting Himself like
the morning and evening sacrifice. The aroma of this most foundational
offering draws a response from the Lord in heaven. Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to pray. And we likewise, must be led by the Spirit and walk by the Spirit. We are certain that we do not know how to pray as we ought. But the Spirit helps our weaknesses. The Holy Spirit intercedes for us with groanings and utterings too deep for words.
The disciples asked how to pray because they saw Jesus praying in ‘a
certain place’. Like the Lord Himself, it will be helpful if we find a place
to pray. We know that He often rose early, long before the sun came up and went to a solitary place to pray. Perhaps their desire to pray had been provoked by Jesus Himself. After His forty day season of prayer in the wilderness, Jesus came preaching, ‘The kingdom of God is at hand, repent and believe in the gospel’. And quickly following this He said, ‘Follow Me,
and I will make you become fishers of men’.
So very long ago, Joshua testified, ‘As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord’. Like Joshua, we are all part of a household. And in the same way that every individual person is different, every household is different and unique. Each Christian house is built upon the same foundation. Nevertheless, each house has a unique and distinct ministry as part of the Christian community. The New Testament has a lot to say about salvation in our houses. The Lord desires that every individual person lives in a house which has found salvation. In this way, we can testify like Joshua, ‘As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord’. In the New Testament, the household of Cornelius was most certainly unique and distinctive. It was unique in so far as he was a Gentile presenting offerings and alms for the Jewish people. When this man was praying, an angel told him to enquire of the apostle Peter. Cornelius sent men from his house to Peter, requesting that he come to them. This was at the command of the angel who said concerning Peter, ‘He will speak words to you by which you will be saved, you and your household’. The detail of the meeting between Cornelius and Peter is quite profound. And the outcome of this meeting was the word of the Lord going forth to the Gentiles. There can be no doubt that the individual faith of Cornelius was the catalyst for this eventuality. Nevertheless, salvation came to his whole household that day. The Lord has placed us all in households, regardless of whether we are married or single, young or old. In the same way that every individual has a work to do, there is a work for every house in the Lord’s kingdom.
When the Bible speaks of a vessel, it is referring to our whole person, not just our physical bodies. We are to become vessels of honour and mercy. The vessel of our individual identity has been ordained by the heavenly Father. He is the Potter and we are the clay. He is moulding and making us. As the Potter, our heavenly Father will want to make a certain kind of vessel out of our particular piece of human clay. But we are all marred in His hand. We could ask the question, ‘Whose fault is this?’ Normally, a piece of clay is marred in a potter’s hand because there is a hard piece in the clay. The clay needs to go through a process to soften the offending part. And if this does not happen, the potter will throw the clay back on the heap and let the weather and elements soften it until it can be reused. If there is a hard spot in us then the clay has to be softened or rejected. We can see why Paul spoke this way to Timothy. He had to deal with the issues of hardness and cleansing to become a vessel for usefulness and honour. Paul said to Timothy, ‘If anyone cleanses himself from these things, he will be a vessel for honour, sanctified, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work’. We are all marred in the hands of the Potter. If we humble ourselves under His mighty hands, we can be remade into another vessel that pleases Him. Many people are stricken with disappointment because the Lord has made them into another vessel. However, we can be assured that He desires to make us useful and prepared for every good work.
