Our Selves kept for Jesus.
_'Keep my self, that I may be_
_Ever, only, all for Thee.'_
'For Thee!' That is the beginning and the end of the whole matter of
consecration.
There was a prelude to its 'endless song,'--a prelude whose theme is
woven into every following harmony in the new anthem of consecrated life:
'The Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself _for me_.' Out of the
realized 'for me,' grows the practical 'for Thee!' If the former is a
living root, the latter will be its living fruit.
'For _Thee!_' This makes the difference between forced or formal, and
therefore unreasonable service, and the 'reasonable service' which is the
beginning of the perfect service where they see His face. This makes the
difference between slave work and free work. For Thee, my Redeemer; for
Thee who hast spoken to my heart; for Thee, who hast done for me--_what?_
Let us each pause, and fill up that blank with the great things the Lord
hath done for us. For Thee, who art to me--_what?_ Fill that up too,
before Him! For Thee, my Saviour Jesus, my Lord and my God!
And what is to be for Him? My self. We talk sometimes as if, whatever
else could be subdued unto Him, self could never be. Did St. Paul forget
to mention this important exception to the 'all things' in Phil. iii. 21?
David said: 'Bless the Lord, O my soul, _and all that is within me_,
bless His Holy Name.' Did he, too, unaccountably forget to mention that
he only meant all that was within him, _except_ self? If not, then self
must be among the 'all things' which the Lord Jesus Christ is able to
subdue unto Himself, and which are to 'bless His Holy Name.' It is Self
which, once His most treacherous foe, is now, by full and glad surrender,
His own soldier--coming over from the rebel camp into the royal army. It
is not some one else, some temporarily possessing spirit, which says
within us, 'Lord, Thou knowest that I love Thee,' but our true and very
self, only changed and renewed by the power of the Holy Ghost. And when
we do that we would not, we know that 'it is no more _I_ that do it, but
sin that dwelleth in me.' Our true self is the new self, taken and won by
the love of God, and kept by the power of God.
Yes, '_kept!_' There is the promise on which we ground our prayer; or,
rather, one of the promises. For, search and look for your own
strengthening and comfort, and you will find it repeated in every part of
the Bible, from 'I am with thee, and will keep thee,' in Genesis, to 'I
also will keep thee from the hour of temptation,' in Revelation.
And kept _for Him!_ Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you,
when it is only the fulfilling of His own eternal purpose in creating us?
'This people have I formed _for Myself._' Not ultimately only, but
presently and continually; for He says, 'Thou shalt abide _for Me;_' and,
'He that remaineth, even he shall be _for our God_.' Are you one of His
people by faith in Jesus Christ? Then see what you are to Him. You,
personally and individually, are part of the Lord's portion (Deut. xxxii.
9) and of His inheritance (1 Kings viii. 53, and Eph. i. 18). His portion
and inheritance would not be complete without you; you are His peculiar
treasure (Ex. xix. 5); 'a _special_ people' (how warm, and loving, and
natural that expression is!) '_unto Himself_' (Deut. vii. 6). Would you
call it 'keeping,' if you had a 'special' treasure, a darling little
child, for instance, and let it run wild into all sorts of dangers all
day long, sometimes at your side, and sometimes out in the street, with
only the intention of fetching it safe home at night? If ye then, being
evil, would know better, and do better, than that, how much more shall
our Lord's keeping be true, and tender, and continual, and effectual,
when He declares us to be His peculiar treasure, purchased (See 1 Pet.
ii. 9, margin) for Himself at such unknown cost!
He will keep what thus He sought,
Safely guard the dearly bought;
Cherish that which He did choose,
Always love and never lose.
I know what some of us are thinking. 'Yes; I see it all plainly enough in
theory, but in practice I find I am not kept. Self goes over to the other
camp again and again. If is not all for Jesus, though I have asked and
wished for it to be so.' Dear friends, the 'all' must be sealed with
'only.' Are you willing to be '_only_' for Jesus? You have not given
'all' to Jesus while you are not quite ready to be '_only_' for Him. And
it is no use to talk about 'ever' while we have not settled the 'only'
and the 'all.' You cannot be 'for Him,' in the full and blessed sense,
while you are partly 'for' anything or any one else. For 'the Lord hath
_set apart_ him that is godly for Himself.' You see, the 'for Himself'
hinges upon the 'set apart.' There is no consecration without separation.
If you are mourning over want of realized consecration, will you look
humbly and sincerely into _this_ point? 'A garden _enclosed_ is my
sister, my spouse,' saith the Heavenly Bridegroom.
Set apart for Jesus!
Is not this enough,
Though the desert prospect
Open wild and rough?
Set apart for His delight,
Chosen for His holy pleasure,
Sealed to be His special treasure!
Could we choose a nobler joy?--and would we, if we might?[footnote:
_Loyal Responses_, p. 11.]
But yielding, by His grace, to this blessed setting apart for Himself,
'The Lord shall _establish_ thee an holy people unto Himself, as He hath
sworn unto thee.' Can there be a stronger promise? Just obey and trust
His word _now_, and yield yourselves _now_ unto God, 'that He may
establish thee _to-day_ for a people unto Himself.' Commit the keeping of
your souls to Him in well-doing, as unto a faithful Creator, being
persuaded that He is able to keep that which you commit to Him.
Now, Lord, I give myself to Thee,
I would be wholly Thine,
As Thou hast given Thyself to me,
And Thou art wholly mine;
O take me, seal me for Thine own,
Thine altogether, Thine alone.
Here comes in once more that immeasurably important subject of our
influence. For it is not what we say or do, so much as what we _are_,
that influences others. We have heard this, and very likely repeated it
again and again, but have we seen it to be inevitably linked with the
great question of this chapter? I do not know anything which,
thoughtfully considered, makes us realize more vividly the need and the
importance of our whole selves being kept for Jesus. Any part not wholly
committed, and not wholly kept, must hinder and neutralize the real
influence for Him of all the rest. If we ourselves are kept all for
Jesus, then our influence will be all kept for Him too. If not, then,
however much we may wish and talk and try, we cannot throw our full
weight into the right scale. And just in so far as it is not in the one
scale, it must be in the other; weighing against the little which we have
tried to put in the right one, and making the short weight still shorter.
So large a proportion of it is entirely involuntary, while yet the
responsibility of it is so enormous, that our helplessness comes out in
exceptionally strong relief, while our past debt in this matter is simply
incalculable. Are we feeling this a little? getting just a glimpse, down
the misty defiles of memory, of the neutral influence, the wasted
influence, the mistaken influence, the actually wrong influence which has
marked the ineffaceable although untraceable course? And all the while we
owed Him all that influence! It _ought_ to have been all for Him! We have
nothing to say. But what has our Lord to say? 'I forgave thee all _that_
debt!'
Then, after that forgiveness which must come first, there comes a thought
of great comfort in our freshly felt helplessness, rising out of the very
thing that makes us realize this helplessness. Just _because_ our
influence is to such a great extent involuntary and unconscious, we may
rest assured that if we ourselves are truly kept for Jesus, this will be,
as a quite natural result, kept for Him also. It cannot be otherwise, for
as is the fountain, so will be the flow; as the spring, so the action; as
the impulse, so the communicated motion. Thus there may be, and in simple
trust there will be, a quiet rest about it, a relief from all sense of
strain and effort, a fulfilling of the words, 'For he that is entered
into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from
His.' It will not be a matter of _trying_ to have good influence, but
just of _having_ it, as naturally and constantly as the magnetized bar.
Another encouraging thought should follow. Of ourselves we may have but
little weight, no particular talents or position or anything else to put
into the scale; but let us remember that again and again God has shown
that the influence of a very average life, when once really consecrated
to Him, may outweigh that of almost any number of merely professing
Christians. Such lives are like Gideon's three hundred, carrying not even
the ordinary weapons of war, but only trumpets and lamps and empty
pitchers, by whom the Lord wrought great deliverance, while He did not
use the others at all. For He hath chosen the weak things of the world to
confound the things which are mighty.
Should not all this be additional motive for desiring that our _whole_
selves should be taken and kept?
I know that whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever. Therefore we may
rejoicingly say 'ever' as well as 'only' and 'all for Thee!' For the Lord
is our Keeper, and He is the Almighty and the Everlasting God, with whom
is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. He will never change His
mind about keeping us, and no man is able to pluck us out of His hand.
Neither will Christ let us pluck ourselves out of His hand, for He says,
'Thou _shalt_ abide for Me many days.' And He that keepeth us will not
slumber. Once having undertaken His vineyard, He will keep it night and
day, till all the days and nights are over, and we know the full meaning
of the salvation ready to be revealed in the last time, unto which we are
kept by His power.
And then, for ever for Him! passing from the gracious keeping by faith
for this little while, to the glorious keeping in His presence for all
eternity! For ever fulfilling the object for which He formed us and chose
us, we showing forth His praise, and He showing the exceeding riches of
His grace in His kindness towards us in the ages to come! _He for us, and
we for Him for ever!_ Oh, how little we can grasp this! Yet this is the
fruition of being 'kept for Jesus!'
Set apart for ever
For Himself alone!
Now we see our calling
Gloriously shown.
Owning, with no secret dread,
This our holy separation,
Now the crown of consecration[footnote: Num. vi. 7.]
Of the Lord our God shall rest upon our willing head.