p. 1 | DECIDE FOR GOD NOW by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Dec 26, 1906

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 32, No. 50.

DECIDE FOR GOD NOW.

By Editor

THERE are many who will look back with sadness unutterable at the failures of the past year. They will weep over blasted hopes, and moral delinquencies. They will resolve at the beginning of the new year, about to dawn, never to fail again. They will "turn over a new leaf."

THEY have done thus many times. Year after year they have shed bitter tears over their failures. Year after year they have made new resolutions. Year after year has been marked by defeats and failure to overcome the propensities of the natural man. Why is it? The tears are sincere. The resolutions are honest. They were made to keep. The most of those who make such resolutions are professed Christians and expect the Lord to help them. Why do they fail?

WE can not take time to consider all or many of the possible causes of failure. Let it suffice that we point here to two only. These two will be found in most cases of failure. The first cause is that we depend on the resolution and our sense of honor to carry us through; and the second is, we decide only on special occasions, such as our birthday, New Year's Day, the Sabbath day, 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 become our enemies instead of our friends. We depend on the things that are utterly "without strength."

BUT let us in sincere repentance leave the sins and defeats, the failures and heartaches of the old year at the foot of the cross, and in the strength of Christ go forward to victory, making the year 1907 a glorious success. How?

FIRST, let all the failures of the past teach us this lesson that in ourselves we are "without strength," poor, wretched, sinful, naked, even as God has said. We may wish to do right; even so Paul was pleased with the law, "after the inward man." We make good resolutions; and he said, "To will is present with me." We fail and fail; he said, "How to perform that which is good I find not." He was trying to do in his own strength; so were we. We depend on our resolutions; but our resolutions are no stronger than we are, and we are no stronger than our failures. We are truly, in the graphic language of the Bible, "without strength."

IF we will by simple faith appreciate the truth of this fact, so clearly revealed by God, so abundantly 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 is the Creator of the heaven and the earth. "He spake, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast." He, in the weakness of humanity, has met the adversary of all righteousness, and vanquished him. Having known the weaknesses of human flesh, He sympathizes with us, and feels our infirmities. Infinite wisdom and power are pledged by Infinite Love to help us. Trust not in human resolution, honor, or weakness; trust in Him; 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." Blessed words which can not fail! Precious assurance to the very weakest of humanity; for "He giveth power unto the faint, and to them that have no might he increaseth strength."

SECONDLY, do not trust to any special time or occasion for receiving help from God, or in living nearer to Him, save the present. The acceptable time is 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. You belong to God; give yourself to Him to-day. He purchased you at an infinite price in all your poverty of soul and sinfulness of heart. He bought you that He might place upon you His beauty. He wishes to do it now in character. 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 moody autocrat, now angry, but who may be approachable by and by. He wants you to come now; He has bidden you to come now; and He declares NOW to be "the acceptable time."

THEREFORE yield to God now. You may not be alive to-morrow. Do it now. As you awaken in the morning, let your first thought be, "I belong to God." Let it possess you. 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, every faculty of mind, every affection of the heart, 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? for the lusts of the flesh? for worldly blessings? Leave them all with God. Make Him first at all times. When the temptation comes, learn to hide behind Him. See sin in its fruitage—death, and count it an enemy. Live in the now, yield to Christ now, feed upon His word now, believe into Him now, and every day will mark a chapter of a glorious new year, ever growing brighter to the dawning of that perfect day, when the fulness of the bliss of the kingdom of God will be one eternal now. Why not decide for God to-day, now?