“You May Have Peace” Part Four

Note: To get a better understanding, read “You May Have Peace” Part Three.

It could be, or course, that your present disquietude is due not to past sins but to present temptations. You are worried lest you may fall into some trap the enemy of all good is laying for you. But here again God has made provision for the dispelling of your fears.

“The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation,” says the apostle Peter (2 Peter 2:9). He is right. God does know how to do it. As Jude says, He “is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy” (verse 24).

But, you say, maybe I shall sin again. Suppose you do. This will not take God by surprise. He has made provision for such a slip on your part. Should your conscience ever tell you that you have done something displeasing to Him, remember that you have “an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1). He who died on Calvary for our redemption is now “even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us” (Romans 8:34).

“Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered” (verse 26).

So we have strong help in heaven. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who together form the Holy Trinity of love, are eager to help us in our struggle with sin. They yearn for our victory. All the angels, too, are dedicated to be “ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation” (Hebrews 1:14).

There is nothing God is not willing to do to help those who have surrendered their lives to Him. With such ample assurances why worry so?

From “Your Bible and You”, by Arthur S. Maxwell, pgs. 143-145.

End of Part Four.

“The Spirit Of Love”

For we know how dearly God loves us, because He has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with His love. Romans 5:5

Is it impossible for a Christian to live this life of love? Often we make little progress in this spirit of love because of our unbelief and lack of faith in God’s promises.

We need continually to remind ourselves that it is not in our own strength that we can reach the love of Christ. The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts daily by the Spirit of God. It is only as we are wholly surrendered to the Spirit that we will be able to live according to God’s will. When the inner life of love is renewed from day to day, we shall love others.

You can pray with Paul: “When I think of the wisdom and scope of God’s plan, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father… that from His glorious, unlimited resources He will give you mighty inner strength through His Holy Spirit. And I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts as you trust in Him. May your roots go down deep into the soil of God’s marvelous love. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep His love really is” (Ephesians 3:14-18). You may know this love on one condition: You must be strengthened by the Spirit so that Christ may dwell in your heart.

Take this message from God’s Word. Unless you are on your knees you cannot live in this love. A life of prayer will make a life of love to Christ, other Christians, and those without Christ a reality in your experience.

From “God’s Word For Growing In Prayer: Devotional Thoughts On Talking With God”, Compiled From The Works Of Andrew Murray, pg. 24

Handling Emotions

Jesus knows how it feels when we struggle with our emotions. He was a human like us and there were times when He felt negative emotions. But His relationship with the Father kept Him from giving in to them. If you would like to stop giving into your destructive feelings, learn how to give them to Jesus in this study.

Handling Emotions

Bible lessons are from “Real Time Faith” study guides.

“Fellowship With God”

I have loved you even as the Father has loved Me. Remain in My love.  John 15:9

The three Persons in the Godhead are the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit–each one is different from the others. God desires to reveal Himself as a person. Each one of us is an individual distinct from others and standing in certain relationships to others. God will reveal Himself to us as a person, and we are called to enter into fellowship with Him.

God greatly desires this relationship with us, but sin has come between us and our God. Even in Christians who know God, there is often great ignorance and even indifference to this personal relationship of love to God.

People believe that at conversion their sins are forgiven, that God accepts them so that they may go to heaven, and that they should try to do God’s will. But they do not realize that, even as a father and his child on earth enjoy being together, so they must have this intimate fellowship with God each day.

Our relationship to Christ rests on His deep, tender love to us. We are not capable on our own to render Him this love, but the Holy Spirit will do the work in us. Meditate quietly on this thought: “And because they love Me, My Father will love them, and I will love them” (John 14:21). Take time to experience this personal fellowship.

From “God’s Word For Growing In Prayer: Devotional Thoughts On Talking With God”, Compiled From The Works Of Andrew Murray, pg. 10

 

“Wait Upon God”

He [Daniel] prayed three times a day, just as he had always done, giving thanks to his God.     Daniel 6:10

The more I think of and pray about the religious situation in our country, the deeper my conviction becomes that Christians do not realize that the aim of conversion is to bring them into daily fellowship with the Father in heaven.

For the believers, taking time each day with God’s Word and in prayer is indispensable. Each day we need to wait upon God for His presence and His love to be revealed.

It is not enough at conversion to accept forgiveness of sins or even to surrender to God. That is only a beginning. We must understand that we have no power on our own to maintain our spiritual life. We need to receive daily new grace from heaven through fellowship with the Lord Jesus. This cannot be obtained by a hasty prayer or a superficial reading of a few verses from God’s Word. We must take time to come into God’s presence, to feel our weakness and our need, and to wait on God through His Holy Spirit to renew our fellowship with Him. There we may expect to be kept by the power of Christ through-out the day.

It is my aim to help Christians to see the absolute necessity of spending time with the Lord Jesus. Without this, the joy and power of God’s Holy Spirit in daily life cannot be experience.

From “God’s Word For Growing In Prayer: Devotional Thoughts On Talking With God”, Compiled From The Works Of Andrew Murray, pg.8