Enjoying God's Best - Part Two

Extract

Enjoying God’s Best – Part Two
A. W. Pink

Recovery of God’s Best
We have considered various cases, both of individuals and corporate companies, who missed God’s best, and saw how ill it fared with them. We pointed out how that if we judge ourselves for our sins we shall escape God’s chastening rod. We now turn to the question, Is it possible for a Christian who has missed God’s best to be recovered to full communion with Him and restored to His providential smile? Possible, yes; easy, no. Before we show how that possibility may be realized, let us solemnly ponder what brought that poor soul into such a sorry plight, a plight into which both writer and reader will certainly fall unless we are ever on our prayerful guard. The grand but simple secret of a healthy and prosperous spiritual life is to continue as we began (Col. 2:6): by daily trusting in the sufficiency of Christ’s blood and yielding ourselves to His lordship, seeking to please and honour Him in all things. As the believer walks with Christ in the path of obedience, following the example which He has left him, peace will possess his soul and joy will fill his heart, and the smile of God will be upon him. But unless he, by grace, fulfil those conditions, such will not be his happy portion.

If the believer slackens in maintaining daily fellowship with Christ and drawing from His fullness, if he fails to feed regularly on the Word and becomes less frequent in his approaches to the throne of grace, then the pulse of his spiritual life will beat more feebly and irregularly. Unless he meditates oft on the love of God and keeps fresh before his heart the humiliation and sufferings of Christ on his behalf, his affections will soon cool, his relish for spiritual things will wane, and obedience will neither be so easy nor so pleasant. If such a spiritual decline be neglected or excused, it will not be long ere indwelling sin gains the upper hand over his graces, and his heart will more and more glide imperceptibly into carnality and worldliness. Worldly pleasures, …