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Title:
"DAILY
FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD"
Author:
Andrew Murray
"That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you,
that ye also may have fellowship with us:
and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ."
I John 1:3
1.
The first and chief need of our Christian life is, Fellowship with God.
The Divine life within us comes from God, and
is entirely dependent upon Him. As I need every moment afresh the air to
breathe, as the sun every moment afresh sends down its light, so it is
only in direct living communication with God that my soul can be strong.
The manna of one day was corrupt when the next
day came. I must every day have fresh grace from heaven, and I obtain it
only in direct waiting upon God Himself. Begin each day by tarrying
before God, and letting Him touch you. Take time to meet God.
2. To this end, let your first act in your
devotion be a setting yourself still before God. In prayer, or worship,
everything depends upon God taking the chief place. I must bow quietly
before Him in humble faith and adoration, speaking thus within my heart:
“God is. God is near. God is love, longing to communicate Himself to
me. God the Almighty One, Who worketh all in all, is even now waiting to
work in me, and make Himself known.” Take time, till you know God is
very near.
3. When you have given God His place of honor,
glory, and power, take your place of deepest lowliness, and seek to be
filled with the Spirit of humility. As a creature it is your blessedness
to be nothing, that God may be all in you. As a sinner you are not
worthy to look up to God; bow in self abasement. As a saint, let God’s
love overwhelm you, and bow you still lower down. Sink down before Him
in humility, meekness, patience, and surrender to His goodness and
mercy. He will exalt you. Oh! take time, to get very low before God.
4. Then accept and value your place in Christ
Jesus. God delights in nothing but His beloved Son, and can be satisfied
with nothing else in those who draw nigh to Him. Enter deep into God’s
holy presence in the boldness which the blood gives, and in the
assurance that in Christ you are most well-pleasing. In Christ you are
within the veil. You have access into the very heart and love of the
Father. This is the great object of fellowship with God, that I may have
more of God in my life, and that God may see Christ formed in me. Be
silent before God and let Him bless you.
5. This Christ is a living Person. He loves you
with a personal love, and He looks every day for the personal response
of your love. Look into His face with trust, till His love really shines
into your heart. Make His heart glad by telling Him that you do love
Him. He offers Himself to you as a personal Saviour and Keeper from the
power of sin. Do not ask, can I be kept from sinning, if I keep close to
Him? but ask, can I be kept from sinning, if He always keeps close to
me? and you see at once how safe it is to trust Him.
6. We have not only Christ’s life in us as a
power, and His presence with us as a person, but we have His likeness to
be wrought into us. He is to be formed in us, so that His form or
figure, His likeness, can be seen in us. Bow before God until you get
some sense of the greatness and blessedness of the work to be carried on
by God in you this day. Say to God, “Father, here am I for Thee to
give as much in me of Christ’s likeness as I can receive.” And wait
to hear Him say, “My child, I give thee as much of Christ as thy heart
is open to receive.” The God who revealed Jesus in the flesh and
perfected Him, will reveal Him in thee and perfect thee in Him. The
Father loves the Son, and delights to work out His image and likeness in
thee. Count upon it that this blessed work will be done in thee as thou
waitest on thy God, and holdest fellowship with Him.
7. The likeness to Christ consists chiefly in
two things—the likeness of His death and resurrection, (Rom. 6:5). The
death of Christ was the consummation of His humility and obedience, the
entire giving up of His life to God. In Him we are dead to sin. As we
sink down in humility and dependence and entire surrender to God, the
power of His death works in us, and we are made conformable to His
death. And so we know Him in the power of His resurrection, in the
victory over sin, and all the joy and power of the risen life. Therefore
every morning, “present yourselves unto God as those that are alive
from the dead.” He will maintain the life He gave, and bestow the
grace to live as risen ones.
8. All this can only be in the power of the
Holy Spirit, who dwells in you. Count upon Him to glorify Christ in you.
Count upon Christ to increase in you the inflowing of His Spirit. As you
wait before God to realize His presence, remember that the Spirit is in
you to reveal the things of God. Seek in God’s presence to have
the anointing of the Spirit of Christ so truly that your whole life may
every moment be spiritual.
9. As you meditate on this wondrous salvation
and seek full fellowship with the great and holy God, and wait on Him to
reveal Christ in you, you will feel how needful the giving up of all is
to receive Him. Seek grace to know what it means to live as wholly for
God as Christ did. Only the Holy Spirit Himself can teach you what an
entire yielding of the whole life to God can mean. Wait on God to show
you in this what you do not know. Let every approach to God, and every
request for fellowship with Him be accompanied by a new, very definite,
and entire surrender to Him to work in you.
10. “By faith” must here, as through all
Scripture, and all the spiritual life, be the keynote. As you tarry
before God, let it be in a deep quiet faith in Him, the Invisible One,
who is so near, so holy, so mighty, so loving. In a deep, restful faith
too, that all the blessings and powers of the heavenly life are around
you, and in you. Just yield yourself in the faith of a perfect trust to
the Ever Blessed Holy Trinity to work out all God’s purpose in you.
Begin each day thus in fellowship with God, and God will be all in all
to you.
________
"The Deeper Christian Life, An Aid to Its Attainment"
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JoyPals.com-ReformedWomen
Editor & Publisher,
“Heavenly Notes 2002”
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