How shall we maintain the attitude through which we shall be enabled to meet the expectations of His love and to receive the fullest measures of His grace?
1. Submit yourselves to God. Unconditional surrender is the first condition of sanctification, a yielded will, a spirit prostrate at His feet, crying continually, “Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?” This is the condition of all deeper blessing.`
2. We must be as positive against evil as we are passive in the hands of God. “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” There is danger that in cultivating the habit of self-renunciation at a certain stage in our spiritual experience we may lose that will power which is necessary for strength of character. The true attitude is an everlasting “yes” to God, and an inexorable “no” to evil. For the inevitable experience of the life of holiness is temptation, and the secret of vic- tory is a fearless courage and an inflexible will quite as much as a victorious faith.
3. The habit of humility. “He giveth grace unto the humble.” “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.” As the valleys receive the fertilizing streams, so it is the lowly heart that claims the more abundant grace of God, and the habit of constantly discounting ourselves is but the reverse side of the faith that always counts upon God.
4. Nearness to God, the life of communion, intimacy with our heavenly Father. This is the very essence of the life of holiness. “Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you.” It is thus we walk with God, until dwelling in His fellowship we catch by intuition His very thought and walk spontaneously in His steppings. So may He make “you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.”