GOD'S WAY IN US by Anonymous

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Mar 25, 1889

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 15, No. 12.

GOD'S WAY IN US.

By Anonymous

DEAN ALFORD has said: "Our only true triumphs are God's triumphs over us. His defeats of us are our only true victories."

It is not uncommon to find professed Christians imperfect, in that they have a secret tendency to resist God's will concerning them. If the question were clearly put to them whether they will obey or disobey him in some well-defined duty, such as the reading of his word or the observance of Christian ordinance, doubtless their decisions would be promptly on the side of God. But in less clearly-defined matters pertaining to ordinary life, where human judgment must decide according to revealed principles, rather than because of any distinct rules, they are liable to resist God's will. Not that they would prefer to do this, but such is the weakness of the flesh that they are ever in danger of losing sight of the great principles by which their conduct should be governed. Some malarial atmosphere of the world, some violent and unforeseen onset from the evil one, may be the occasion of the loss of spiritual vision for the moment. It is only when the divine knowledge that pertains to God and his salvation comes to be their abiding possession that they are really safe.

Dean Alford, therefore, might have truthfully said that "God's triumphs over us" are accomplished by giving us a spiritual understanding of the principles taught in his word. When we see that God is love, that his wisdom is perfect, that his discipline is always for our good, that the blood of Christ has power to cleanse, that he can keep us from transgression so long as we trust and obey him, that whatever of moral weakness may yet remain he can reveal even this unto us—when we realize all these things as profound, life-long convictions, then the struggle of resistance between God and the soul will cease. In all things it is then our joy to exclaim: "Lord, hold me in thy hand! Do with me exactly as it seemeth best to thee! If my choice be in harmony with thine own, well; if my request be denied, equally well."

May this blessed rest, this heart-felt acquiescence before God, be reached as in a moment? In other words, may there come a time in the experience of believers when this divine knowledge flashes upon their souls in such a way that they may speak of it as instantaneous? Without doubt this is the genuine experience of very many. They can tell us of the very hour and place when the sublime revelation came. They then fell at the Lord's feet in humility and trust. They rejoiced to take him forever as their Redeemer to cleanse, as their Teacher to instruct, as their Guide to lead, and as their Governor to rule, and also to discipline as they might need correction. God became their conqueror by the full revelation of truth in their souls as in a moment, and henceforth they joyfully will bear witness to the fact. They can truthfully say: "We count these trials of life our joy." They bear the crosses and losses of life with meekness and without murmuring. They show toward all that "charity that suffereth long," that "charity that vaunteth not itself." The candid observer is compelled to submit the divine reality of such spiritual subjugation, and even to admire the wondrous change. Life, in all its manifold phases, becomes to them only the beginning of that higher and perfect existence toward which they rapidly tend.

But, while this is true, it must be admitted that others cannot give the precise date of such full surrender—that is, the surrender which is the result of a scriptural and overpowering knowledge of eternal truth, imparted by the Holy Spirit to the inmost soul. To these this experience has come as the dawn of an opening day. They have known the struggles of the weary night. Through all its gloom of sorrow and discipline they have been safely conducted.—Anonymous.