DECIDE NOW by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Dec 26, 1892

DECIDE NOW.

By Editor

How many there are who, as they look back over the old year, with its blasted hopes and moral failures, will resolve in the beginning of the new year, just about to dawn, to never fail again. Year after year bitter tears are shed over the failures, year after year new resolutions are made, going over and over again the same ground, and year after year is marked by defeat, and failure to overcome the propensities of the natural man. Why is it? The tears are sincere; the resolutions are honest; those who make them mean to keep them. Many of those who thus resolve, in fact, the most of them, are professed Christians, and ask and expect the Lord to help them. What, then, is the matter?

There may be many reasons why failure and defeat forever triumph, but we wish to point out two which are applicable in most cases of this kind. The first is that we depend on the resolutions and our sense of honor in keeping them to carry us through, and the second is, we only decide on special occasions, such as our birthdays, New Year's day, etc., to do better; so that the very things which we thought would keep us from falling have ministered to our defeat. The resolutions and the times of making them are enemies instead of friends. But let us leave in sincere penitence all the defeats, the failures, the sin, the heartache, at the foot of the cross, and in His strength go forward, making 1893 a glorious success. How?

1. Let all the failures of the past teach us this lesson, that we have no strength in ourselves. We may sincerely wish to do right; so Paul was "pleased with the law of God according to the inward man." We make good resolutions; and he said, "To will is present with me." But we fail in these resolutions, even as he found, "but how to perform that which is good I find not." He was trying to do in his own strength, and so are we. We depend on the resolutions, and our honor in keeping them; but the resolutions are no stronger than we, and we are no stronger than our failures. In the words of the Scripture, we are "without strength."

If we will but realize the truth of this fact, so clearly revealed by God, so many times confirmed by our failures, we will seek to the One who is stronger, and who is not far from every one of us. All power in heaven and earth is his. He created the heavens and earth by his power. He spake and it was done; he commanded and it stood fast. He has met the great adversary of all righteousness and vanquished him. He has taken upon himself all the weaknesses of sinful mortal flesh, that he might sympathize with us, and know just how and where and when to help us. Infinite wisdom and power are pledged by Infinite Love to help us. Trust in him, not in human resolution, honor, or weakness; "for even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall; but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; they shall walk, and not faint." Isa. 40:30, 31. Blessed words, which cannot fail! Precious assurances to the very weakest of humanity; for "He giveth power to the faint; and to him that hath no might He increaseth strength." Verse 29.

2. Do not trust to any special time or occasion for receiving help from God, or in living nearer to him, save one, and let that time be TO-DAY, NOW. "To-day, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts." Behold, NOW is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation." 2 Cor. 6:2. Give yourself to God to-day. You belong to him; he has purchased you, in all your poverty of soul and sinfulness of heart. He bought you, that upon you he might place his beauty. He wishes to do it now. He is not like a man who is so busy that he is compelled to say, "Not now, some other time." He is not like a monarch, now angry, but whom we hope will be approachable by and by. He wants you to come now; he has bidden you come now; and he declares, as in the Revised Version above, that now is "the acceptable time" for coming.

Therefore yield to God now. As you awaken in the morning, let this thought take possession of you, that you belong to God.

Say unto him: "Father, I belong to thee; and I therefore yield myself to thee to-day, body, soul, and spirit. Every organ of body and mind is thine; take them and use them to thy glory." Let it be the prayer of the heart. Have you a desire for aught of the world?—Bring it to God. Do you long for some of its blessings?—Leave them with God. Make him first at all times. When the provocation comes, school yourself to remember your Saviour, and yield to him right there and then. When the tempting pleasure comes, right then yield to God. Live in the now, yield to Christ now, believe in him now, and every day will mark a glorious new year of a life ever growing brighter and brighter unto the dawning of that perfect day, when the fullness of the bliss of the kingdom of God will be one eternal now. Reader, why not decide for God to-day, now.