We are lazy by nature and we have to take our selves by the back of the neck and make ourselves obey God. How do you get out of bed? By thinking about getting out o f bed? You never will get out by merely thinking about it. You probably will go back to sleep and dream you are out of bed only to wake up and discover you are still in bed! Do you get out of bed by feeling like getting out of bed? You probably would never get up if you waited for that. No, you get out of bed by getting out of bed. Your mind may tell you that you should get up but you must put your will into action regardless o f feelings and get up. It is high time for Christians to awake out of sleep, it is time to awake to righteousness and sin not, it is time to stir up ourselves to take hold of God. There is nothing that Satan dislikes quite so much as this. I find that he is willing for me to get up ser mons, write religious articles, read good books, if doing those things will keep me from stirring up myself to take hold of God. He will strike any compromise; he will settle for anything short of getting through to God. And when you undertake to draw nigh unto God, Satan will cloud your mind, dull your spirit and re mind you of a dozen other things you should be doing. The best way to remember a lot of small chores you forgot is to start praying! Perhaps you are saying, “ But it just isn’t in me.” If you are a Christian, it is in you. Remember Paul’s word to Timothy: “ Stir up the gift of God, which is in thee.” I think we may broaden the application of this verse and say that if you are truly saved the gift of God which is eternal life is in you and the Holy Spirit dwells within you. It is not the stirring up of our own poor selves but o f that which God has put within us. It may be like the sugar in the bottom of the lemonade glass that needs to be put into circula tion. It may be like the bed of coals covered with ashes that needs to be kindled into flame — indeed it was something like this that Paul had in mind in his word to Timothy. To change the figure again, you may have to “ prime the pump.” You may need the help of a good devotional book, a rousing sermon or the fellowship of a soul from whose life the living water is flowing. But make sure that your experience is your own, not secondhand. Beware of the mere stirring up of your own nature, but do not make the other mistake of waiting for “ something to happen” when you need to avail yourself of the aids God has given you. Do not wait until adversity, calamity, disaster arouse you to see what a low state you are in. Do not sleep until some breakdown, some sinful collapse, awakens you to your indolence and neglect. While things go well, before the evil days draw nigh, NOW is the time to take an inventory, to check on your spiritual state, to get up-to-date with God. The goodness of God should lead you to repentance that you may judge yourself lest you be judged. It is well to have a physical exami nation before you have to take one in a hospital. The very fact that you feel no need of stirring up yourself to take hold of God is the greatest reason why you do need to do it. Verily, as in the days when Isaiah penned this im mortal chapter, we need a fresh visitation from God. Surely God is still able and His riches are just as abundant as ever for him that waits upon Him. He will do business if we mean business and meet us if we remember Him in our ways. But our sins and, yes, even our righteousnesses stand in the way and there is none that stirs up himself to take hold of God. Let us rouse ourselves and break up our fallow ground that He may rain righteousness upon us!
to keep the saints from settling into hopeless slumber. But the saints need to rouse themselves to take hold of God. Notice that our text does not say, “ There is none that . . . stirreth up himself” — period. That is only a means to an end. Too much of the “ rouse- ments” in our religious life today are only the stirring up of our poor selves. It ends there and we get nowhere. We know that something is wrong and we add more activity and excitement, but we do not take hold of God. With more picnics, more meetings, more rallies, more projects, more enthusiasm, we ship our jaded selves into a glorified St. Vitus dance, but we are doing it all in our sleep. Soon we are more exhausted than ever but we do not get through to God. The church has never whooped it up so much as now. We have never stirred up ourselves so much as now. The digni fied churches have done it by stepping up their activi ties until there is something doing at church every night and nobody has time to stay at home with the family. The emotional churches have done it by going off the deep end in sanctified epilepsies. But it is all the stirring up of self that does not take hold of God. The way out of this stupor is not by living in a stew. To keep from freezing we do not have to fry. Peter stirred up himself to cut off the ear of the priest’s servant at the betrayal of Jesus and some of us keep the Lord busy putting back ears we lop off in mis directed zeal. I am not pleading that we stir up our selves—period. We are to stir up ourselves to take hold o f God. We are to rouse ourselves to lay hold of the means of grace, to feed upon the Word, to watch and pray, to cultivate our souls. It is not easy. The times are against it. Our natures are against it. If you are growing weeds you can take it easy but if you are growing good fruit you must work. Some of your Christian friends will oppose it. They see no reason for getting excited over religion. “ Doesn’t the Bible say, ‘Be not righteous over much’ ?” And certainly Satan is against rousing your self to take hold of God for “ Satan trembles when he sees the weakest saint upon his knees.” You are to stir yourself only in order to avail your self of the means o f grace. There is a Bible on the table. Pick it up and read it. If you don’t read it be cause you can’t understand it, how are you going to understand it until you read it? You need to pray. Get down on your knees and start. Don’t wait until you feel like it. “ Pray when you feel like it, pray until you do feel like it!” You need to go to God’s house and worship. Get yourself out of that easy chair and march yourself to the place where prayer is wont to be made. You need to walk down that aisle and take a stand for God. Do it. Don’t wait for feeling. Sam Jones used to illustrate it this way: “ I go out to chop wood and you find me with my axe across my knees and not a chip in sight. You ask, ‘Why are you not chopping wood?’ I answer, ‘I’m waiting until I work up a sweat first, then I’ll chop wood.’ ” The best way to work up a sweat is to chop wood! “ ...Check on your spiritual state. Get up-to-date with God!”
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THE KING'S BUSINESS
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