December 28th — CONTINUOUS CONVERSION
December 28th.CONTINUOUS CONVERSION
"Except ye be converted, and become as little children. . . ." Matthew 18:3
These words of Our Lord are true of our initial conversion, but we have to be continuously converted al the days of our lives, continual y to turn to God as children. If we trust to our wits instead of to God, we produce consequences for which God wil hold us responsible. Immediately our bodies are brought into new conditions by the providence of God, we have to see that our natural life obeys the dictates of the Spirit of God. Because we have done it once is no proof that we shal do it again. The relation of the natural to the spiritual is one of continuous conversion, and it is the one thing we object to. In every setting in which we are put, the Spirit of God remains unchanged and His salvation unaltered, but we have to "put on the new man." God holds us responsible every time we refuse to convert ourselves, our reason for refusing is wilful obstinacy. Our natural life must not rule, God must rule in us.
The hindrance in our spiritual life is that we wil not be continual y converted, there are wadges of obstinacy where our pride spits at the throne of God and says - I won't. We deify independence and wilfulness and cal them by the wrong name. What God looks on as obstinate weakness, we cal strength.
There are whole tracts of our lives which have not yet been brought into subjection, and it can only be done by this continuous conversion. Slowly but surely we can claim the whole territory for the Spirit of God.