Abide
In Christ by Andrew Murray
Day
18
In
Stillness of Soul.
“In
returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and confidence
shall be your strength…”(Isa. 30:15 KJV)
(Be
silent to) the Lord, and wait patiently for Him (Ps. 37:7 margin).
Truly
my soul is silent unto God. (Ps. 62:1 RV margin).
'THERE
is a view of the Christian life that regards it as a sort of
partnership, in which God and man have each to do their part. This
view admits that it is only little that man can do, and that little
he does is defiled with sin...Still he must do his utmost — only
then can he expect God to do His part. To those who think this way,
it is extremely difficult to understand what Scripture means when it
speaks of our being still and doing nothing, of our resting and
waiting to see the salvation of God. It appears to them to be a
perfect contradiction, when we speak of this quietness and ceasing
from all effort as the secret of the highest activity of man and all
his powers. And yet this is just what Scripture does teach.
The
explanation of the apparent mystery is to be found in this, that when
God and man are spoken of as working together, there is nothing of
the idea of a partnership between two partners who each contribute
their share to a work. The relationship is a very different one. The
true idea is that of cooperation based on subordination. As Jesus was
entirely dependent on the Father for all His words and all His works,
so the believer can do nothing on his own initiative. What he can do
for himself is altogether sinful. He must therefore cease entirely
from his own doing, and wait for the working of God in him. As he
ceases from self-effort, faith assures him that God does what He has
undertaken, and works in him. And what God does is to renew, to
sanctify, and to waken all his energies to their highest power. So,
in the proportion to which the believer yields himself as a truly
passive instrument in the hand of God, so will he be wielded by God
as the active instrument of His almighty power. The soul in which the
wondrous combination of perfect passivity with the highest activity
is most completely realized, has the deepest experience of what the
Christian life really is.
Among
the lessons to be learned of those who are studying the blessed art
of abiding in Christ, there is none more needful and more profitable
than this one of stillness of soul. In it alone can we cultivate that
teachableness of spirit to which the Lord will reveal His secrets —
that meekness to which He shows His ways. It is the spirit exhibited
so beautifully in all the three Marys of the New Testament: In Mary
the Mother of Jesus, whose only answer to the most wonderful
revelation ever made to human being was, "Behold the handmaid of
the Lord; be it unto me according to Thy word” (Luke 1:38 KJV);
and of whom, as mysteries multiplied around her, it is written: "Mary
kept all these things and pondered them in her heart” (Luke 2:19)
And in Mary of Bethany, who "sat at Jesus' feet, and heard His
word” (Luke 10:39), and who showed, in the anointing of Him for His
burial, how she had entered more deeply into the mystery of His death
than even the beloved disciple. And in Mary Magdalene, too, who
sought her Lord in the house of the Pharisee, with tears that spoke
more than words. (Luke 7:37-38) It is a soul silent unto God which
is the best preparation for knowing Jesus and for holding fast the
blessings He bestows. It is when the soul is hushed in silent awe and
worship before the Holy Presence that reveals itself within, that the
still small voice of the blessed Spirit will be heard.
Therefore,
beloved Christian, as often as you seek to understand better the
blessed mystery of abiding in Christ, let this be your first thought
: "My soul, only be silent unto God; for my expectation is from
Him” (Psalm 62:5 margin). Do you indeed hope to realize the
wondrous union with the Heavenly Vine? Know that flesh and blood
cannot reveal it to you, but only the Father in heaven. "Cease
from your own wisdom” (Pro. 23:4). You have only to bow in the
confession of your own ignorance and helplessness. The Father will
delight to give you the teaching of the Holy Spirit. If only your
ears are open, and your thoughts are brought into subjection, and
your heart prepared in silence to wait upon God and to hear what He
speaks, He will reveal to you His secrets. And one of the first
secrets will be deeper insight into the truth, that as you sink low
before Him in nothingness and helplessness, in a silence and a
stillness of soul which seeks to catch the faintest whisper of His
love, teachings will come to you which you never had heard before
because of the rush and noise of your own thoughts and efforts. You
will learn how your great work is to listen, hear, and believe what
He promises, to watch and wait and see what He does; and then, in
faith, worship, and obedience, to yield yourself to the working of
Him who works mightily in you.
One
would think that no message could be more beautiful or welcome than
this, that we may rest and be quiet, and that our God will work for
us and in us. And yet how far this is from being the case! How slow
many are to learn that quietness is blessedness, that quietness is
strength, that quietness is the source of the highest activity...it
is the secret of all true abiding in Christ! Let us try to learn it,
and to watch against whatever interferes with it. The dangers that
threaten the soul's rest are not a few.
There
is the dissipation of soul which comes from entering needlessly and
too deeply into the interests of this world. Every one of us has his
Divine calling; and, within the circle pointed out by God Himself,
interest in our work and its surroundings is a duty. But even here
the Christian needs to exercise watchfulness and sobriety. And still
more do we need a holy temperance in regard to things not absolutely
imposed upon us by God. If abiding in Christ really is our first aim,
let us beware of all needless excitement. Let us watch even in lawful
and necessary things against the wondrous power these have to keep
the soul so occupied, that there remains but little power or zest for
fellowship with God. Then there is the restlessness and worry that
come with care and anxiety about earthly things. These eat away the
life of trust, and keep the soul like a troubled sea. There the
gentle whispers of the Holy Comforter cannot be heard.
No
less hurtful is the spirit of fear and distrust in spiritual things.
With its anxieties and its efforts, it never is able to really hear
what God has to say. Above all, there is the unrest that comes from
seeking in our own way and in our own strength the spiritual blessing
which comes alone from above. The heart occupied with its own plans
and efforts for doing God's will, and securing the blessing of
abiding in Jesus, must fail continually. God's work is hindered by
our interference. He can do His work perfectly only when the soul
ceases from its work. He will do His work mightily in the soul that
honors Him by expecting Him to work both to will and to do.
And,
last of all, even when the soul seeks truly to enter the way of
faith, there is the impatience of the flesh, which forms its judgment
of the life and progress of the soul not after the Divine but after
the human standard.
In
dealing with all this, and so much more, blessed is the man who
learns the lesson of stillness, and fully accepts God's word: "In
quietness and confidence shall be your strength." Each time he
listens to the word of the Father, or asks the Father to listen to
his words, he dares not begin his Bible reading or prayer without
first pausing and waiting, until the soul is hushed in the presence
of the Eternal Majesty. Under a sense of the Divine nearness, the
soul, feeling how self is always ready to assert itself, and intrude
even into the holiest of all with its thoughts and efforts, yields
itself in a quiet act of self-surrender to the teaching and working
of the Divine Spirit. It is still, and waits in holy silence, until
all is calm and ready to receive the revelation of the Divine will
and presence. Its reading and prayer then indeed become a waiting on
God with ears and heart opened and purged to receive fully only what
He says.
"Abide
in Christ!" Let no one think that he can do this if he does not
daily have his quiet time, his seasons of meditation and waiting on
God. In these, a habit of soul must be cultivated, in which the
believer goes out into the world and its distractions, yet where the
peace of God that passes all understanding, keeps his heart and mind.
It is in such a calm and restful soul that the life of faith can
strike deep root, that the Holy Spirit can give His blessed teaching,
that the Holy Father can accomplish His glorious work. May each one
of us learn every day to say, "Truly my soul is silent unto
God." And may every feeling of the difficulty of attaining this
only lead us simply to look and to trust Him whose presence makes
even the storm a calm. As you cultivate the quietness as a means to
the abiding in Christ, expect the ever-deepening quietness and calm
of heaven in your soul as the fruit of abiding in Him.
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