If you recall the last time we looked at
2. Thank God for His strength in our weakness!
“Enter you in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leads to destruction, and many there be which go in there at: 14) Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leads unto life, and few there be that find it”. Matthews 7:13-14
"If we are going to live as disciples of Jesus, we have to remember that all noble things are difficult. The Christian life is gloriously difficult, but the difficulty of it does not make us faint and cave in, it rouses us up to overcome. Do we so appreciate the marvelous salvation of Jesus Christ that we are our utmost for His highest?
"God saves men by His sovereign grace through the Atonement of Jesus; He works in us to will and to do of His good pleasure; but we have to work out that salvation in practical living. If once we start on the basis of His Redemption to do what He commands, we find that we can do it. If we fail, it is because we have not practiced. The crisis will reveal whether we have been practicing or not.
"If we obey the Spirit of God and practice in our physical life what God has put in us by His Spirit, then when the crisis comes, we shall find that our own nature as well as the grace of God will stand by us. Thank God He does give us difficult things to do! ... Jesus is bringing many 'sons unto glory,' and God will not shield us from the requirements of a son. ... It takes a tremendous amount of discipline to live the noble life of a disciple of Jesus in actual things."
Next Time we will look at:
4. Thank God we belong to Him!
