Daily Fellowship With God
Andrew Murray
1. The first and chief need of our Christian life is, Fellowship with God. The Divine
life within us comes from God, and is entirely dependent upon Him. As I need every
moment afresh the air to breathe, as the sun every moment afresh sends down its
light, so it is only in direct living communication with God that my soul can be
strong.
The manna of one day was corrupt when the next day came. I must every day
have fresh grace from heaven, and I obtain it only in direct waiting upon God
Himself. Begin each day by tarrying before God, and letting Him touch you. Take
time to meet God.
2. To this end, let your first act in your devotion be a setting yourself still before
God. In prayer, or worship, everything depends upon God taking the chief place. I
must bow quietly before Him in humble faith and adoration, speaking thus within
my heart: "God is. God is near. God is love, longing to communicate Himself to
me. God the Almighty One, Who worketh all in all, is even now waiting to work in
me, and make Himself known." Take time, till you know God is very near.
3. When you have given God His place of honor, glory, and power, take your place
of deepest lowliness, and seek to be filled with the Spirit of humility. As a creature it
is your blessedness to be nothing, that God may be all in you. As a sinner you are
not worthy to look up to God; bow in self abasement. As a saint, let God's love
overwhelm you, and bow you still lower down. Sink down before Him in humility,
meekness, patience, and surrender to His goodness and mercy. He will exalt you.
Oh! take time, to get very low before God.
4. Then accept and value your place in Christ Jesus. God delights in nothing but His
beloved Son, and can be satisfied with nothing else in those who draw nigh to Him.
Enter deep into God's holy presence in the boldness which the blood gives, and in
the assurance that in Christ you are most well-pleasing. In Christ you are within the
veil. You have access into the very heart and love of the Father. This is the great
object of fellowship with God, that I may have more of God in my life, and that
God may see Christ formed in me. Be silent before God and let Him bless you.
5. This Christ is a living Person. He loves you with a personal love, and He looks
every day for the personal response of your love. Look into His face with trust, till
His love really shines into your heart. Make His heart glad by telling Him that you do
love Him. He offers Himself to you as a personal Saviour and Keeper from the
power of sin. Do not ask, can I be kept from sinning, if I keep close to Him? but
ask, can I be kept from sinning, if He always keeps close to me? and you see at
once how safe it is to trust Him.
6. We have not only Christ's life in us as a power, and His presence with us as a
person, but we have His likeness to be wrought into us. He is to be formed in us,
so that His form or figure, His likeness, can be seen in us. Bow before God until you
get some sense of the greatness and blessedness of the work to be carried on by
God in you this day. Say to God, "Father, here am I for Thee to give as much in
me of Christ's likeness as I can receive." And wait to hear Him say, "My child, I give
thee as much of Christ as thy heart is open to receive." The God who revealed
Jesus in the flesh and perfected Him, will reveal Him in thee and perfect thee in Him.
The Father loves the Son, and delights to work out His image and likeness in thee.
Count upon it that this blessed work will be done in thee as thou waitest on thy
God, and holdest fellowship with Him.
7. The likeness to Christ consists chiefly in two things--the likeness of His death
and resurrection, (Rom. 6:5). The death of Christ was the consummation of His
humility and obedience, the entire giving up of His life to God. In Him we are dead
to sin. As we sink down in humility and dependence and entire surrender to God,
the power of His death works in us, and we are made conformable to His death.
And so we know Him in the power of His resurrection, in the victory over sin, and
all the joy and power of the risen life. Therefore every morning, "present
yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead." He will maintain the
life He gave, and bestow the grace to live as risen ones.
8. All this can only be in the power of the Holy Spirit, who dwells in you. Count
upon Him to glorify Christ in you. Count upon Christ to increase in you the inflowing
of His Spirit. As you wait before God to realize His presence, remember that the
Spirit is in you to reveal the things of God. Seek in God's presence to have the
anointing of the Spirit of Christ so truly that your whole life may every moment be
spiritual.
9. As you meditate on this wondrous salvation and seek full fellowship with the
great and holy God, and wait on Him to reveal Christ in you, you will feel how
needful the giving up of all is to receive Him. Seek grace to know what it means to
live as wholly for God as Christ did. Only the Holy Spirit Himself can teach you what
an entire yielding of the whole life to God can mean. Wait on God to show you in
this what you do not know. Let every approach to God, and every request for
fellowship with Him be accompanied by a new, very definite, and entire surrender
to Him to work in you.
10. "By faith" must here, as through all Scripture, and all the spiritual life, be the
keynote. As you tarry before God, let it be in a deep quiet faith in Him, the Invisible
One, who is so near, so holy, so mighty, so loving. In a deep, restful faith too, that
all the blessings and powers of the heavenly life are around you, and in you. Just
yield yourself in the faith of a perfect trust to the Ever Blessed Holy Trinity to work
out all God's purpose in you. Begin each day thus in fellowship with God, and God
will be all in all to you.
Taken from ANDREW MURRAY’s, "THE MASTER'S INDWELLING” "WITH CHRIST IN THE SCHOOL OF
PRAYER," ETC., ETC. (Chicago: FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY, 1895).
|