Faithful in Obedience

Quote: Jesus Sanctifies

He sanctified Himself for us, that we ourselves also might be sanctified in truth. Yes, our sanctification rests and roots in His, in Himself. ~ Andrew Murray, Holy in Christ

Holiness is True Life

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God Sanctifies in Truth

Daily Thought: Bring Sin into the Light

However deeply rooted the sin may appear, rooted in constitution and habit, we must cleanse ourselves of it if we would be holy. 'If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin.' As we bring out every sin from the inner part of the house into the light of God and walk in the light, the precious blood that justifies will work mightily to cleanse too: the blood brings into living contact with the life and the love of God. Let us come into the light with the sin: the blood will prove its mighty power. Let us cleanse ourselves in yielding ourselves to the light to reveal and condemn, to the blood to cleanse and sanctify.

Andrew Murray, Holy in Christ, Olive Tree Bible Software Edition

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Daily Thought: The Side of Victory

No, the believer who knows what Christ is as the Risen One, approaches death, the crucifixion of self and the flesh and the world, from the resurrection side, the place of victory, in the power of the Living Christ. When we were baptized into Christ, we were baptized into His death and resurrection as ours; and Christ Himself, the Risen Living Lord, leads us triumphantly into the experience of the power of His death.

Murray, Andrew (2009-10-04). Holy in Christ: Thoughts on the Calling of God's Children to be Holy as He is Holy (p. 119). Public Domain Books. Kindle Edition.

Believe God's Promises

Daily Thought: The Significance of Joy

The deep significance of joy in the Christian life is hardly understood. It is too often regarded as something secondary; whereas its presence is essential as the proof that God does indeed satisfy us, and that His service is our delight. In our domestic life we do not feel satisfied if all the proprieties of deportment are observed, and each does his duty to the other; true love makes us happy in each other; as love gives out its warmth of affection, gladness is the sunshine that fills the home with its brightness. Even in suffering or poverty, the members of a loving family are a joy to each other. Without this gladness, especially, there is no true obedience on the part of the children. It is not the mere fulfillment of a command, or performance of a service, that a parent looks to; it is the willing, joyful alacrity [Brisk and cheerful readiness.] with which it is done that makes it pleasing.

Murray, Andrew (2009-10-04). Holy in Christ: Thoughts on the Calling of God's Children to be Holy as He is Holy (Kindle Locations 2314-2321). Public Domain Books. Kindle Edition.

Daily Thought: From the Resurrection Side

Our holiness is, like His, in the death to our own will, and to all our own life. But—this we must seek to grasp—we do not approach death from the side from which Christ met it, as an enemy to be conquered, as a suffering to be borne, before the new life can be entered on. No, the believer who knows what Christ is as the Risen One, approaches death, the crucifixion of self and the flesh and the world, from the resurrection side, the place of victory, in the power of the Living Christ. When we were baptized into Christ, we were baptized into His death and resurrection as ours; and Christ Himself, the Risen Living Lord, leads us triumphantly into the experience of the power of His death. And so, to the believer who truly lives by faith, and seeks not in his own strugglings to crucify and mortify the flesh, but knows the living Lord, the deep resurrection joy never for a moment forsakes Him, but is his strength for what may appear to others to be only painful sacrifice and cross-bearing.

Murray, Andrew (2009-10-04). Holy in Christ: Thoughts on the Calling of God's Children to be Holy as He is Holy (Kindle Locations 2350-2358). Public Domain Books. Kindle Edition.

Prayer: Find Liberty in Holiness

Most glorious God! I ask You to open my eyes to this wonderful liberty with which Christ has made me free. May I enter fully into Your word, that sin shall have no dominion over me because I am not under the law but under grace. May I know my liberty which I have in Christ Jesus, and stand fast in it.

Father! Your service is perfect liberty: reveal this too to me. You are the infinitely Free, and Your will knows no limits but what its own has placed. And You invite us into Your will, that we may be free as You are free. O my God! show me the beauty of Your will, as it frees me from self and from sin, and let it be my only blessedness. Let the service of righteousness so be a joy and a strength to me, having its fruit in sanctification, leading me into Your Holiness.

Blessed Lord Jesus! my Deliverer and my Liberty, I belong to You. I give myself to Your will, to know no will but Yours. Master! You and You alone would I serve. I have my liberty in You! be my Keeper. I cannot stand for one moment out of You. In You I can stand fast: in You I put my trust.

Most Holy God! as Your free, obedient, loving child, You will make me holy. Amen.

(Adapted from Andrew Murray's prayer found in Holy in Christ at the end of the chapter 20 Holiness and Liberty.)

Daily Thought: The Holiness We Need

In the holiness of Jesus we see what ours must be: righteousness, that hates sin and gives everything to have it destroyed; love, that seeks the sinner and gives everything to have him saved. ‘Whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother.’

Andrew Murray, Holy in Christ, Olive Tree Bible Software Edition

Daily Thought: The Power of Separation

We need, above all, to know the power of separation, the power that leads us into it in the spirit of desire and of joy, of liberty and of love. The great separating word in human language is the word Mine. In this we have the great spring of effort and of happiness: in the child with its toys, in labour with its gains and rewards, in the patriot who dies for his country, it is this Mine that lays its hand on what it sets apart from all else. It is the great word that love uses. Be it the child that says to its mother, My own mamma, and calls forth the response, My own child; the bridegroom who draws the daughter from her beloved home and parents to become his; or the Holy God who speaks: ‘I have separated you from the people, that ye should be Mine;’ it is always with that Mine that love exerts its mighty power, and draws from all else to itself. God Himself knows no mightier argument, can put forth no more powerful attraction than this, ‘that ye should be Mine.’ And the power of separation will come to us, and work in us, just as we yield ourselves to study and realize that holy purpose, to listen to and appropriate that wondrous Mine, to be apprehended and possessed of that Almighty Love.

Murray, Andrew (2009-10-04). Holy in Christ: Thoughts on the Calling of God's Children to be Holy as He is Holy (Kindle Locations 1131-1140). Public Domain Books. Kindle Edition.

Daily Thought: God Will Give Us Holiness

Learn to cease from your own wisdom as well as your own goodness; draw near in poverty of spirit to let the Holy One show you how utterly above human knowledge or human power is the holiness He demands; to the soul that ceases from self, and has no confidence in the flesh, He will show and give the holiness He calls us to.

Murray, Andrew (2009-10-04). Holy in Christ: Thoughts on the Calling of God's Children to be Holy as He is Holy (Kindle Locations 252-254). Public Domain Books. Kindle Edition.

Daily Thought: One Standard of Holiness

There is not one standard of Holiness for God and another for man. The nature of light is the same, whether we see it in the sun or in a candle: the nature of Holiness remains unchanged, whether it be God or man in whom it dwells. The Lord Jesus could say nothing less than, ‘Be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.’ When God calls us to Holiness, He calls us to Himself and His own life: the more carefully we listen to the voice, and let it sink into our hearts, the more will all human standards fall away, and only the words be heard, Holy, as I am holy.

Murray, Andrew (2009-10-04). Holy in Christ Thoughts on the Calling of God's Children to be Holy as He is Holy (Kindle Locations 129-133). Public Domain Books. Kindle Edition.

Daily Thought: A life of Absolute Surrender

If God allows the sun to shine upon you moment by moment, without intermission, will not God let His life shine upon you every moment? And why have you not experienced it? Because you have not trusted God for it, and you do not surrender yourself absolutely to God in that trust.

A life of absolute surrender has its difficulties. I do not deny that. Yes, it has something far more than difficulties: it is a life that with men is absolutely impossible. But by the grace of God, by the power of God, by the power of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, it is a life to which we are destined, and a life that is possible for us, praise God! Let us believe that God will maintain it.

Andrew Murray, Absolute Surrender, Olive Tree Bible Software Edition

Daily Thought: The Royal Spirit

Men sometimes speak as if humility and meekness would rob us of what is noble and bold and manlike.  Oh, that all would believe that this is the nobility of the kingdom of Heaven, that this is the royal spirit that the King of Heaven displayed, that this is Godlike, to humble oneself, to become the servant of all! This is the path to gladness and the glory of Christ's presence ever in us, his power ever resting on us.

Andrew Murray, Humility and Absolute Surrender, Hendrickson Publishers (2005), p. 20

Daily Thought: Cultivate Compassion

Compassion is the spirit of love that is awakened by the sight of need or wretchedness.  What abundant opportunities there are every day to practice this heavenly virtue, and what need there is for it in a world so full of misery and sin!  Every Christian ought therefore by prayer and practice to cultivate a compassionate heart, as one of the most precious marks of likeness to the blessed Master.

Opportunities for showing compassion are all around us.  There are poor and sick, widows and orphans, distressed and despondent—people who need more than anything the refreshment a compassionate heart can bring.  Pray earnestly for a compassionate heart, always ready to be an instrument of divine compassion.  It was the compassionate sympathy of Jesus that attracted so many to Him on earth.  That same compassionate tenderness will still draw people to you and to your Lord.

Andrew Murray, The Best of Andrew Murray, Cook Communications (2005), p. 49

Daily Thought: Redeemed from Pride

All the wretchedness of which this world has been the scene, all its wars and bloodshed among the nations, all its selfishness and suffering, all it ambitions and jealousies, all its broken hearts and embittered lives, with all its daily unhappiness, have their origin in what this cursed, hellish pride, either our own, or that of others, has brought us.  It is pride that made our redemption needful; it is from our pride we need, above everything, to be redeemed.

Andrew Murray, Humility and Absolute Surrender, Hendrickson Publishers (2005), p. 10