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A Daily Experience in Conversion, July 28
For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish,
yet the inward man is renewed day by day.
2 Corinthians 4:16
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Genuine conversion is needed, not once in years, but daily. This
conversion brings man into a new relation with God. Old things, his
natural passions and hereditary and cultivated tendencies to wrong, pass
away, and he is renewed and sanctified. But this work must be continual;
for as long as Satan exists, he will make an effort to carry on his work.
He who strives to serve God will encounter a strong undercurrent of
wrong. His heart needs to be barricaded by constant watchfulness and
prayer, or else the embankment will give way; and like a millstream, the
undercurrent of wrong will sweep away the safeguard. No renewed heart
can be kept in a condition of sweetness without the daily application of
the salt of the Word. Divine grace must be received daily, or no man will
stay converted....
Test and trial will come to every soul that loves God. The Lord does
not work a miracle to prevent this ordeal of trial, to shield His people from
the temptations of the enemy.... Characters are to be developed that will
decide the fitness of the human family for the heavenly home—characters
that will stand through the pressure of unfavorable circumstances in private
and public life, and that will, under the severest temptations, through the
grace of God grow brave and true, be firm as a rock to principle, and come
forth from the fiery ordeal, of more value than the golden wedge of Ophir.
God will endorse, with His own superscription, as His elect, those who
possess such characters....
The Lord accepts no halfhearted service. He demands the whole man.
Religion is to be brought into every phase of life, carried into labor of
every kind. The whole being is to be under God’s control. We must
not think that we can take supervision of our own thoughts. They must
be brought into captivity to Christ. Self cannot manage self; it is not
sufficient for the work.... God alone can make and keep us loyal.
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