DO YE NOW BELIEVE?

By this we believe … Jesus answered, Do ye now
believe?

— John 16:30-31

Now we believe. Jesus says – Do you? The time is coming when you will
leave Me alone. Many a Christian worker has left Jesus Christ alone
and gone into work from a sense of duty, or from a sense of need
arising out of his own particular discernment. The reason for this is
the absence of the resurrection life of Jesus. The soul has got out
of intimate contact with God by leaning to its own religious
understanding. There is no sin in it, and no punishment attached to
it; but when the soul realizes how he has hindered his understanding
of Jesus Christ, and produced for himself perplexities and sorrows
and difficulties, it is with shame and contrition he has to come
back.

We need to rely on the resurrection life of Jesus much deeper down
than we do, to get into the habit of steadily referring everything
back to Him; instead of this we make our common – sense decisions and
ask God to bless them. He cannot, it is not in His domain, it is
severed from reality. If we do a thing from a sense of duty, we are
putting up a standard in competition with Jesus Christ. We become a
“superior person,” and say – “Now in this matter I must do this and
that.” We have put our sense of duty on the throne instead of the
resurrection life of Jesus. We are not told to walk in the light of
conscience or of a sense of duty, but to walk in the light as God is
in the light. When we do anything from a sense of duty, we can back
it up by argument; when we do anything in obedience to the Lord,
there is no argument possible; that is why a saint can be easily
ridiculed.

On this day...

  1. Many a Christian worker has left Jesus Christ alone
    and gone into work from a sense of duty, or from a sense of need
    arising out of his own particular discernment. The reason for this is
    the absence of the resurrection life of Jesus. The soul has got out
    of intimate contact with God by leaning to its own religious
    understanding.

  2. If we do a thing from a sense of duty, we are
    putting up a standard in competition with Jesus Christ.

  3. When we do anything from a sense of duty, we can back
    it up by argument; when we do anything in obedience to the Lord,
    there is no argument possible; that is why a saint can be easily
    ridiculed.

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