STANDING BEFORE GOD

 

And the men of Beth Shemesh said, "Who is able to stand before this holy Lord God? And to whom shall it go up from us?"  (1 Samuel 6:20 NKJV)

The phrase "to stand before God" designates a high toned religious life; it includes the knowledge of God, the faculty of executing His commands, and the power of interceding for others. The phrase was a favorite one with Elijah, as expressing the spirit of his great career, and we surely desire that the spirit and attitude of our life may be designated the same. But if this is to be something more than a vague wish, or idle dream, there must be a close adhesion to great principles.

Among many it is the general tendency to follow the practice of the majority. We drift with the current, and allow our lives to be settled by our friends or our whims, our fancies or our tastes. If we have a momentary qualm, in contrasting our lives with the standards of primitive simplicity, of which Scripture or the biographies of the saints are full, we excuse ourselves by saying that so long as the main purpose of life is right the details are unimportant. But what are we really and essentially in the smallest details of our life?

What a revolution would come to us all, if it became the one fixed aim and ambition of our lives to stand before God and to always do those things that are pleasing in His sight. It would not make us less tender in our friendships, or less active in our service. It would not take the sparkle from our eye; the nerve from our grasp; or the warm glow from our heart. But it would check many a vain word, arrest many a silly joke, stop much selfish and vain expenditures, and bring us back to whatsoever things are true, honorable, just, pure, lovely and of good report.

We must hold lightly to the things around us. It is difficult to say what worldliness consists in, for what is worldly to some people is an ordinary part of life's circumstance to others. But all of us are sensible of ties that hold us to the earth. We may discover what they are by considering what we cling to most; what we find hard to let go, even into the hands of Christ. Whatever it is that hinders us from living on the highest level, if it is a weight that impedes our speed heavenward, it should be laid deliberately on God's altar, that we may be able, without hindrance, to be wholly for God.

PRAYER

May Your Holy Spirit enable us to realize in daily life our true position in Your purpose. May we in heart and mind ascend, and with You continually dwell. May our affections be set on things above, not on things of the earth.  In Jesus’ name I plead, AMEN.

God's Daily Promise

Promise #64:
I have called you out of darkness into My glorious light.

1 Peter 2:9 (WEB)
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation,
a people for God’s own possession, that you may proclaim the excellence
of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light: