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    The Believer's Call to Commitment
    The Believer's Call to Commitment
    The Believer's Call to Commitment
    Ebook100 pages1 hour

    The Believer's Call to Commitment

    By Andrew Murray

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    About this ebook

    Originally titled Aids to Devotion, this study on Ephesians focuses on the Holy Spirit and Christian commitment. Writing nearly a century ago, Andrew Murray clearly teaches that commitment to Christ must be based not on determination but on complete dependence on the Holy Spirit. While retaining the author's message and style, this edition has been carefully edited to update the language for the 21st century reader.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBaker Publishing Group
    Release dateJul 1, 2005
    ISBN9781441261762
    The Believer's Call to Commitment
    Author

    Andrew Murray

    ANDREW MURRAY (1828-1917) was a church leader, evangelist, and missionary statesman. As a young man, Murray wanted to be a minister, but it was a career choice rather than an act of faith. Not until he had finished his general studies and begun his theological training in the Netherlands, did he experience a conversion of heart. Sixty years of ministry in the Dutch Reformed Church of South Africa, more than 200 books and tracts on Christian spirituality and ministry, extensive social work, and the founding of educational institutions were some of the outward signs of the inward grace that Murray experienced by continually casting himself on Christ. A few of his books include The True Vine, Absolute Surrender, The School of Obedience, Waiting on God, and The Prayer Life.

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      Book preview

      The Believer's Call to Commitment - Andrew Murray

      Cover

      Preface

      Some years ago I was asked to write a series of articles entitled Aids to Devotion for the Lovedale Christian Express. At that time I was deep in a study of Paul’s epistle to the Ephesians. I thought it might be possible to connect this study with the request to assist in the devotional emphasis of their periodical. This led to my writing two of the introductory chapters of this book and the twelve chapters that deal with the prominent elements of this epistle.

      I am deeply aware of my inability to fully express what I think I have seen of the treasures that God has stored away in this epistle for His church. I have, nevertheless, ventured to do so in the hope that God may use it to help some of His children realize two essential truths: first, the standard of the true Christian life as it is set before us in Ephesians; and, second, the divine assurance that God is able and willing to make true in our experience all that the epistle contains.

      I commit this book to you with the prayer that Paul wrote in his epistle: That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him … (Ephesians 1:17). Apart from our seeking the Holy Spirit, receiving Him, and yielding to His revelation of the truths of the epistle, they will remain a hidden mystery to us. With a teachable spirit, we will have the spirit of wisdom and revelation. As spiritual people, we will learn to know what surpasses human knowledge and be enabled to experience His power—the power to do in us far above all that we can ask or think.

      —Andrew Murray

      Clairvaux, Wellington,

      South Africa

      Chapter 1

      Our Devotional Life and Commitment

      But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.

      Matthew 6:6

      We use the word devotion in two senses: first, with regard to prayer in public and private; and, second, with regard to our commitment, or devotedness, to God, which should mark our daily life. There are two basic thoughts in our text: If in our private devotions we truly meet our Father who sees in secret, He has promised us the open reward of grace to live our life for His glory—the entire and continual commitment of our whole personality to His will. The act of commitment in our private devotions is related to that spirit of commitment that will carry us through our daily life.

      An outstanding passage concerning this principle of commitment to God is found in Leviticus 27:28: ‘Nevertheless no devoted offering that a man may devote to the Lord of all that he has, both man and beast, or the field of his possession, shall be sold or redeemed; every devoted offering is most holy to the Lord.’ The story of Achan (Joshua 6:17–18) is a solemn commentary on how this principle works: ‘Now the city shall be doomed by the Lord to destruction, it and all who are in it…. And you, by all means abstain from the accursed things, lest you become accursed when you take of the accursed things, and make the camp of Israel a curse, and trouble it.’ Accursed here means devoted or committed to God for destruction. The punishment, first on Israel in its defeat and then on Achan, gives a somber illustration of the seriousness of devotion or commitment in God’s sight. Commitment is the wholehearted and irrevocable surrendering to God of what may never be taken back again. The person or thing is most holy to the Lord.

      Help for strengthening our commitment may be accomplished in several ways. The simplest might be to offer insight concerning our time spent in private devotion—how to make it a true time of worship. First we would deal with the major hindrances to an effective devotional life and some of the reasons these hindrances have such power over us. At the same time we would seek the disciplines that enable us to pray more effectively. Another method would be to meditate on a series of Scriptures to encourage and strengthen our faith. Scriptural meditation awakens spiritual receptivity and sensitivity. Your devotional life becomes a more joyful time because it promotes awareness that you are pleasing to God.

      But there is still another way that, though more difficult, has its advantages. It does not deal directly with the devotional life itself but with the spirit of commitment that should rule us moment by moment and influence the activities of our daily life. The main purpose of this method would be to challenge the depth of our spiritual life on the following points: (1) What do we truly regard as the meaning of a life wholly surrendered to God, His will, and His glory; (2) What do we think about the extent to which this commitment is absolutely obligatory and attainable; (3) What do we think of our successes or failures in the past and their causes; and (4) What amount of discipline and self-denial do we consider necessary to succeed in the pursuit.

      Educators consistently tell us that the primary rule in all teaching is this: The mind of the pupil must be motivated to self-activity. It is only when you have instilled within him the awareness of his own abilities and have helped him to realize the joy of victory over apparently insurmountable difficulties, that you really give him the key by which he can discover truths for himself. No one can do us a greater favor than to stimulate spiritual thought and desire. This spiritual stimulation will cause us to diligently pursue the work of training ourselves to seek with our whole heart that life of commitment that will be the most pleasing to God.

      Many have called Socrates the greatest teacher the world has ever seen. He was not a communicator of knowledge, he simply asked questions. He helped his scholars first to see their own ignorance, and then to know their abilities of thought and reason and to understand that the real value of knowledge is contained in its moral power (as the truth is received in the heart and the life). More than one humble and thoughtful inquirer owed to him the unfolding of all that was meant in his words Know thyself.

      In these days when people profess to have little time for personal meditation on divine truth, we might well desire a modern Socrates to stir us up with his questions. Do we really understand the words we use and believe the truths we profess? The heathen Socrates might teach many believers the meaning of true religion and give them strong reason to strengthen their commitment. One religious writer was much like Socrates in his method of teaching. His name was William Law. With his deep insight, he clearly depicted the lack of reality in many of our traditional beliefs. He exposed the inconsistency between a faithful observance of our public or private devotions and a life committed to the world. He sought to make us know ourselves, both in our ignorance and in the abilities that lie dormant in us. And just as Socrates always appealed to the voice within him, saying that a god had ordered him to spend his life proving to himself and others whether we are giving ourselves to right living, so Law, especially in his later writings, always aimed to stimulate faith that Christ dwells in the heart,

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