Scripture: "Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ."—1 PET. i. 2.
Here we have one of the texts in which the great truth of the blessed Trinity is seen to lie at the very root of our spiritual life. In this book we have spoken specially of the adoration of God the Father, and the need of time, sufficient time each day, to worship Him in some of His glorious attributes. But we must remind ourselves that, for all our intercourse with God, the presence and the power of the Son and the Spirit are absolutely necessary.
What a field this opens for us in the inner chamber. We need time to realize how all our intercourse with the Father is conditioned by the active and personal presence and working of the Lord Jesus. It takes time to become fully conscious of what need I have of Him in every approach to God, what confidence I may have in the work that He is doing for me and in me, and what the holy and intimate love is in which I may count upon His presence and all-prevailing intercession. But oh to learn the lesson that it needs time and that time will be most blessedly rewarded!
Even so too with the Divine and almighty power of the Holy Spirit working in the depth of my heart, as the One who alone is able to reveal the Son within me. Through Him alone I have the power to know what and how to pray; above all, how to plead the Name of Jesus, and to receive the assurance that my prayer has been accepted.
Dear Christian reader, have you not felt more than once that it was as it were a mockery to speak of five minutes to be alone with God, to come under the impression of His glory? And now does not the thought of the true worship of God in Christ through the Holy Spirit make you feel more than ever that it needs time to enter into such holy alliance with God as shall keep the heart and mind all the day in His peace and presence? It is in tarrying in the secret of God's presence that you receive grace to abide in Christ, and all the day to be led by His Spirit.
Just pause and think: "Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ!" What food for thought—and worship!
'When Thou saidst, 'Seek ye My face,' my heart said unto Thee, 'Thy face, Lord, will I seek.'"
