All things are possible to him that
believeth.
Mark 9:23
Scripture
teaches us that there is not one truth on which Christ insisted more
frequently, both with His disciples and with those who came seeking His help,
than the absolute necessity of faith and its unlimited possibilities. And
experience has taught us that there is nothing in which we come so short as the
simple and absolute trust in God to literally fulfill in us all that He has
promised. A life in the abiding presence must be a life of unceasing faith.
Think for
a moment of the marks of a true faith. First of all, faith depends on God to do
all that He has promised. A person with true faith does not rest content with
taking some of the promises; he seeks nothing less than to claim every promise
that God has made in its largest and fullest meaning. Under a sense of the
nothingness and utter powerlessness of his faith, he trusts the power of an
almighty God to work wonders in the heart in which He dwells.
The
person of faith does this with his whole heart and all his strength. His faith
yields to the promise that God will take full possession, and throughout the
day and night will inspire his hope and expectation. By faith, he recognizes
the inseparable link that unites God’s promises and His commands, and he yields
to do the one as fully as he trusts the other.
In the
pursuit of the power that such a life of faith can give, there is often a faith
that seeks and strives but cannot grasp. This is followed by a faith that
begins to see that waiting on God is needed, and quietly rests in the hope of
what God will do. This should lead to an act of decision, in which the soul
takes God at His word and claims the fulfillment of the promise and then looks
to Him, even in utter darkness, to perform what He has spoken.
The life
of faith to which the abiding presence will be granted must have complete
mastery of the whole being. It is such a wonderful privilege—Christ’s presence
actually keeping us all day long in its blessedness—that it needs a parting
with much that was formerly thought lawful, if He is indeed to be the Lord of
all, the blessed Friend who is our companion, the joy and light of our lives.
By such faith, we will be able to claim and experience the words of the
Master:
And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.
Matthew 28:20
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