The habit of rising to the occasion
That ye may know what is the hope of His calling . . . . Eph. 1:18. Remember what you are saved for—that the Son of God might be manifested in your mortal flesh. Bend the whole energy of your…
The habit of enjoying the disagreeable
That the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. 2 Cor. 4:10. We have to form habits to express what God’s grace has done in us. It is not a question of being saved from…
The habit of a good conscience
A conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men. Acts 24:16. God’s commands are given to the life of His Son in us, consequently to the human nature in which His Son has been formed, His commands are difficult,…
Make a habit of having no habits
For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 1:8. When we begin to form a habit we are…
You won’t reach it on tiptoe
Add to your brotherliness . . . love. 2 Peter 1:7. Love is indefinite to most of us, we do not know what we mean when we talk about love. Love is the sovereign preference of one person for another,…
Take the initiative
Add to your faith virtue. 2 Peter 1:5. “Add” means there is something we have to do. We are in danger of forgetting that we cannot do what God does, and that God will not do what we can do.…
Grasp without reach
Where there is no vision, the people perish. Proverbs 29:18. There is a difference between an ideal and a vision. An ideal has no moral inspiration; a vision has. The people who give themselves over to ideals rarely do anything.…
The patience of faith
Because thou hast kept the word of My patience. Rev. 3:10. Patience is more than endurance. A saint’s life is in the hands of God like a bow and arrow in the hands of an archer. God is aiming at…
Building for eternity
For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? Luke 14:28. Our Lord refers not to a cost we have to count, but to a…
Liberty on the abyss of the gospel
Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free. Gal. 5:1. A spiritually minded man will never come to you with the demand—‘Believe this and that’; but with the demand that you square your life with the…