104. What advice do you give for making a success of the Christian life?

What advice do you give for making a success of the Christian life?

There are seven steps in the path marked out in the Bible.

1. Begin right. What a right beginning is we see in John 1:12 : “But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name.”

Receive Christ as your Savior who died for your sin. Trust the whole matter of your forgiveness to Him. Rest upon the fact that He has paid the full penalty of your sin. “For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Take Him as your Deliverer, who will save you from the power of sin, who will quicken you when dead in trespasses and sins. Don’t try to save yourself from the power of sin. Trust Him to do it.

Take Him as your Master. Don’t seek to guide your own life. Surrender unconditionally to His lordship over you. It is a joyous life all along the way, the life of entire surrender. If you have never done it before and wish to make a success of the Christian life, go alone with God, get down on your knees, and say: “All for Jesus.”

2. Confess Christ openly before men. Matthew 10:32 : “Whosoever therefore shall confess Me before men, him will I confess also before My Father which is in heaven.” Romans 10:10 : “For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” The life of confession is the life of full salvation.

3. Study the Word. 1 Peter 2:2 : “As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the Word, that ye may grow thereby.” The Word of God is the soul’s food. It is the nourishment of the new life. One who neglects the Word cannot make much of a success of the Christian life. All who get on in the Christian life are great feeders on the Word of God.

4. Pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17). The one who would succeed in the Christian life must lead a life of prayer. That is easy enough if you only set about it. Have set times for prayer. The rule of David and Daniel, three times a day, is a good rule: “Evening and morning and at noon will I pray, and cry aloud: and He shall hear my voice” (Psalms 55:17); “Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house: and his windows being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime” (Daniel 6:10). Begin the day with thanksgiving and prayer—thanksgiving for the definite mercies of the past, prayer for the definite needs of the present day. Stop in the midst of the bustle and worry and temptation of the day for thanksgiving and prayer. Close the day with thanksgiving and prayer.

Then there should be the special prayer in special temptation—when we see the temptation approaching. Keep looking to God. It is not needful to be on our knees all of the time. But the heart should be on its knees all the time.

There are three things for which the one who would make a success of the Christian life must especially pray. First, for wisdom—"If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God” (James 1:5); second, for strength—"They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength” (Isaiah 40:31); third, for the Holy Spirit—"Your heavenly Father shall give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him” (Luke 11:13). If you have not yet received the baptism [filling] with the Holy Spirit you should offer definite prayer for this definite blessing and definitely expect to receive it. If you have already received the baptism [filling] with the Holy Spirit, you should with each new emergency of Christian work pray to God for a new filling with the Holy Spirit (Acts 4:31).

5. Go to work for Christ. Matthew 25:29 : “For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance; but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath.” The context means that those who use what they have will get more, and those that let what they have lie idle will lose even that. The working Christian, the one who uses his talents, whether few or many, in Christ’s service, is the one who gets on in the Christian life here, and who will hereafter hear the “Well done, thou good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.”

Find some work to do for Christ and do it. Seek for work. If it is nothing more than distributing tracts or invitations, do it. Always be looking for something more to do for Christ, and you will always be receiving something more from Christ.

6. Give largely. Proverbs 11:25 : “The liberal soul shall be made fat”; 2 Corinthians 9:6; 2 Corinthians 9:8 : “He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly, and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully. And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work.” Success and growth in Christian life depend on few things more than upon liberal giving. A stingy Christian cannot be a growing Christian. It is wonderful how a Christian man begins to grow when he begins to give.

7. Keep pushing on. “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Php 3:13-14).

Forget the sins which lie behind. If you fall anywhere, if you fall, don’t be discouraged, don’t give up, don’t brood over the sin. Confess it instantly. Believe God’s Word: “If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). Believe the sin is forgiven, forget it, press on. Satan beguiles many a poor soul here. He keeps us brooding over our failures and sins.

Forget the achievements and victories of the past, and press on to greater. Here, too, Satan cheats many of us out of the larger life. He keeps us thinking so much of what we have already obtained, and makes us so contented with it, and so puffed up over it, that we come to a standstill, or even backslide. Our only safety is in forgetting those things which are behind, and pressing on. There is always something better ahead until we “come . . . unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13).