January 30

“I saw that He was not only my Savior for the future, but He was also my all-sufficient Savior for the present.  He was my Captain to fight my battles for me, in order that I need not fight them myself;  He was my Burden-bearer to carry my burdens, in order that I might roll them off of my own weak shoulders; He was my Fortress to hide me from my enemies; my Shield to protect me; my Guide to lead me; my Comforter to console me; my Shepherd to care for me.  No longer did I need to care for, and protect, and fight for myself.  It was all in the hands of One who was mighty to save; and what could I do but trust Him?”  Hannah Whitall Smith, “The Unselfishness of God”

I was just as amazed as Hannah was to discover that while I trust Christ to save me from eternal punishment without my help, I wasn’t trusting Him to save me from my flesh without my help.  As much as I thought I knew the role of the Holy Spirit in my day-to-day life I always saw myself as receiving help from Him.  But now, Hannah’s words have explained what is meant by “to step aside”.  In fact, she used these same words to describe how she allowed God to fight the battle for her.  I have already written about my discovery that along with stepping aside I needed to acknowledge and accept what was before things could change.  Hannah has clarified this even further for me when she wrote, “Our Lord tells us over and over that according to our faith it shall be unto us.”  It is by faith that we lay hold of the power to step aside.  The kind of faith that is required is not belief in what we hope for (which is the opposite of acceptance), but belief in Whom we hope for--God.  Our hope is in God, Himself, and in His great love for us.  We must never put our hope in ourselves or in what our flesh wants.

“Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words.  And he who searches the hearts of men knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.”  Romans 8:26, 27