Scripture: "All things are possible to him that believeth."—MARK ix. 23.
Scripture teaches us that there is not one truth on which Christ insisted more frequently, both with His disciples and with those who came seeking His help, than the absolute necessity of faith and its unlimited possibilities. And experience has taught us that there is nothing in which we come so short as the simple and absolute trust in God to fulfil literally in us all He has promised. A life in the abiding presence must of necessity be a life of unceasing faith.
Think for a momnet of what the marks of a true faith are. First of all, faith counts upon God to do all He has promised, as the only measure of its expectation. It does not rest content with taking some of the promises; it seeks nothing less than to claim every promise that God has made, in its largest and fullest meaning. Under a sense of its own nothingness and utter impotence, it trusts the power of an Almighty God to work wonders in the heart in which He dwells.
It does this with the whole heart and all its strength. Faith yields itself to the promise that God will take full possession, and all through the day and night inspire its hope and expectation. It recognizes the inseparable link that unites God's promises and His commands, and yields itself to do the one as fully as it trusts the other.
In the pursuit of the power which such a life of faith can give, there is often a faith that seeks and strives, but cannot grasp. This is followed by a faith that begins to see that waiting on God is needed, and that quietly rests in the hope of what God will do. This should lead on to an act of decision, in which the soul takes God at His word, and claims the fulfilment of the promise, and then looks to Him, even in utter darkness, to perform what He has spoken.
The life of faith to which the abiding presence will be granted must needs have complete mastery of the whole being. It is such a wonderful privilege, Christ's presence actually keeping us all day in its blessed experience, that it needs a parting with much that was formerly thought lawful, if He is indeed to be the Lord of all, the blessed Friend who companies with us, the joy and light of our life. This faith will be able to claim and to experience the words of the Master: "Lo, I am with you alway."
