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"He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy." "Christ is able to save to the uttermost all who come to Him in faith. He will cleanse them from all defilement if they will let Him. But if they cling to their sins, they cannot possibly be saved; for Christ's righteousness covers no sin unrepented of. " Jesus never covers any sins in us. He wants to cleanse us from all sins. But how can He cleanse us if we do not give Him our sins? How can He create in us new hearts if we do not give Him our old hearts? "There are many who try to reform by correcting this or that bad habit, and they hope in this way to become Christians, but they are beginning in the wrong place. Our first work is with the heart. " "My son, give me thine heart." "The whole heart must be yielded to God, or the change can never be wrought in us by which we are to be restored to His likeness. By nature we are alienated from God. . . . We are held fast in the snare of Satan; 'taken captive by him at his will.' 2 Tim. 2:26. God desires to heal us, to set us free. But since this requires an entire transformation, a renewing of our whole nature, we must yield ourselves wholly to Him. "The warfare against self is the greatest battle that was ever fought. The yielding of self, surrendering all to the will of God, requires a struggle; but the soul must submit to God before it can be renewed in holiness." "Put off your old nature which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new nature, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness." "The Christian's life is not a modification or improvement of the old, but a transformation of nature. There is a death to self and sin, and a new life altogether. " "So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. " What does it mean to be dead to self and sin and to be alive to God? If we are dead to self and sin, we have given up our rights to selfishness and worldly pleasures. We have also given up our rights to use Satan's methods to fight our battles. He wants to work in us impatience, irritation, resentment, anger, envy, jealousy, lust, hatred, bitterness, and rebellion. But when we are yielded to God, He can work in us His love so that we can deal patiently and kindly with others, forgiving them and praying for them when they wrong us. This is God's way of relating to people who do not treat us kindly. They need our prayers! They do not need anger or impatience or irritation. Why should we also allow Satan to control us in our response to them? So I went to God and said, "I want to die to self! I give up my rights to act by the promptings of the lower sinful nature. I give up my right to resent my husband no matter what he does. I give up my right to be impatient or irritated with the children when they are having a hard time with their own problems. I will rather pray for them and help them. I give up my right to allow Satan to work in me his methods of disciplining the children. I give up my rights to be agitated when others do not do it my way. I want to die to self and allow the Holy Spirit to control my spirit. "Put your whole being into the Lord's hands soul, body, and spirit, and resolve to be His loving, consecrated agency, moved by His will, controlled by His mind, infused by His Spirit. " "There are those who profess to be followers of Jesus Christ who have never died to self. They have never fallen on the Rock and been broken. Until this shall be, they will live unto self, and if they die as they are, it is forever too late for their wrongs to be righted." "Humble yourselves before God, and make an earnest effort to empty the soul temple of all rubbish - all envyings, all jealousies, all suspicions, all fault-findings. 'Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double-minded.'" "We cannot be half the Lord's and half the world's. We are not God's children unless we are such entirely." "God will not be trifled with; Christ accepts no divided service. He asks for all." "Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he can-not be my disciple. " God will continue to love us and draw us, and do whatever He can to bring us to a full surrender. But He cannot save us unless we go all the way with Christ. "God will not occupy a divided heart or reign from a divided throne. Every idol that holds the affections and diverts them from the God of love must be dethroned." "Let no one think that Christ can be satisfied with one little corner of our hearts, while we allow Satan to erect his throne within, and fill our moral atmosphere with defilement. Christ will abide in the soul only when the whole heart is given up to Him." We are to be the bride of Christ. But can He accept us if we also want to share our hearts with Satan and allow his spirit to control us instead of the Holy Spirit? "A partial surrender to truth gives Satan free opportunity to work. Until the soul-temple is fully surrendered to God, it is the stronghold of the enemy." "Satan does not want anyone to see the necessity of an entire surrender to God. When the soul fails to make this surrender, sin is not forsaken; the appetites and passions are striving for the mastery; temptations confuse the conscience, so that true conversion does not take place." "The Lord cannot purify the soul until the entire being is sur-rendered to the working of the Holy Spirit. " "He demands all. When we are brought to yield to His claims, and give up all, then, and not till then, will He throw around us His arms of mercy. But what do we give up when we give up all? A sin-polluted soul for Jesus to purify, to cleanse by His mercy, and to save from death by His matchless love." "Repent and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin. Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die?" What will Jesus do when we surrender all? |