We can’t claim to be working hard on the “house” of our godliness if our timelog doesn’t show that we’ve spent much time on it. Under normal circumstances, a lack of activity indicates a degree of laziness. And laziness leads to leaky houses, always.
When we summon the courage and love for God to do the small thing that is within our reach, the devil is discouraged! So whatever else may happen today, let’s do some small thing out of love for God. If we did even that much, that would be progress.
Today, if there’s some unpleasant little duty that could easily be procrastinated, do it just because you don’t want to. Put the flesh in its place! Teach and train your body to take orders from your spirit. Someday, you’ll be mighty glad you did.
Holiness is a higher priority than happiness. It should rank higher in our scale of values than happiness, and maintaining its presence in our lives should be a matter of more pressing concern. The pursuit of holiness should be what we’re known for.
Through the gospel of Christ, we can have all that the word “life” was ever meant to convey. And the amazing thing is, the life that is available to us right now in Christ is, at its very best, only a foretaste of the fuller life that awaits us.
We say we’re reaching forward, but the pull of nostalgia can tug at our hearts so strongly that we catch ourselves trying to make the world like it used to be rather than the way it ought to be, as if “used to be” and “ought to be” were the same.
Is it really God we’re reaching forward to or are we preoccupied with lesser things? These questions aren’t just important; they are urgent as well. If we’re not busy about the Father’s business, our conduct is not going anywhere — it’s aimless.
We can take it for granted that God’s way will always work — it will always accomplish the purpose that He had in mind, whether that purpose is clear to us or not. So the question is not what will happen, but what our principles should be.
We are a “reaching people” who strain forward, eager to connect with something that can fill our needs. Foolishly, however, we reach for the wrong things, things that can’t satisfy us. But if we grasp the wrong things, we doom ourselves to death.
Satan loves to discourage us. He takes perverse delight in keeping us from taking even one step toward God. But he need not have the last word. We can determine that, God being our helper, we will summon the courage, self-respect, and energy to act!
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