A WORD IN SEASON TO THE WEARY
🌷🌷🌷 August 15 🌷🌷🌷
“…we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness” (1 Pet. 2:24).
If you say, “I believe the Lord Jesus Christ died for my sins”, then you must believe that the same Lord Who died for you rose again for your sake. That is the meaning of that fragment in Rom. 6:5. “…if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection.” Don’t think that just by confessing and saying, “I am sorry for my sins”, you are going to be given salvation, or that just saying, “He died for me”, and also “I know He rose again” is going to save you. It is only by His coming into you by faith that you will be saved. We have to welcome Him and receive Him, and believe that He has come in. He died that we may die to our old nature. It is the old nature which is responsible for all your trouble. There are some skin diseases, which have some deep inner root. People try to cure the disease by outward ointment. But they do not know the root cause of the disease. Unless the root of disease is cured, the disease will not go away. The same thing is true about the sinful nature. Every human being is born with a sinful nature. It cannot be changed by fasting, prayer, Bible knowledge, visions or dreams. You have to take into you by faith the power of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no other remedy. It is only by that power that you can die to all these things, when the Holy Spirit will come into you by faith.
You cannot call yourself an Englishman simply by putting on a suit or a tie; you must be born in England to be an Englishman. In the same way you must have that divine life, which gives you new longings and new desires, and will lift you up day by day and more and more. Our Lord rose again to live in us, work in us, and work through us, and to make us completely new and eventually to make us His priests and kings. He is calling us for that high purpose, and to an everlasting kingdom. The Lord is preparing His people for that kingdom.
All our sufferings and trials are allowed for that purpose. So, for a true believer every suffering is a blessing; it is not a punishment. For sinners it is a punishment, for the rebellious it is a punishment, but for a believer any suffering of any kind is a blessing to him. By that you are being prepared for your heavenly call or heavenly vocation, that you may have a full appreciation of the things of eternity. There is a flower in North India, which gives the strongest fragrance on the darkest night. On a moonlight night it is not so strong, but only on the darkest night its fragrance is the strongest. It is the same way with the life of the Lord Jesus Christ which is stronger, more inspiring and sweeter in your trials and sufferings. At that time you are being taught many hidden mysteries. I can thank God for every suffering, hardship and trial in my past life. I never would have learnt these truths from books or in colleges. The Lord Himself has become unto me more precious and near in these sufferings.
