Consecration

May My Life Be Yielded to be Wielded – Jim Elliot

Take me, O God, and may my life be yielded that it might be wielded. Yea, I would know wielding the sword myself so that my hand would cleave thereto—wholly helpless without the Word—weary in its use but unrelenting in my clutch of it (2 Samuel 23:2-6).

– Jim Elliot –
from his August 14, 1948 Journal

Need Time Alone With God – Austen Phelps

It has been said, that no great work in literature or in science was ever wrought by a man who did not love solitude. We may lay it down as an elemental principle of religion, that no large growth in holiness was ever gained, by one who did not take time to be often, and long, alone with God.

– Austen Phelps –
from The Still Hour: Communion with God in Prayer, 1859

Clinging to Christ – John Owen

The first effect of a true love for Christ is our clinging to him. The believer’s soul is knit to Christ’s soul as David’s was to Jonathan’s (1 Samuel 18:1). Love produces a firm clinging to Christ crucified that makes a soul in some sense always present with Christ on the cross.

– John Owen –
from The Holy Spirit, 1674

Do You Need Revival In Your Own Life? – Charles Finney

Do you feel its necessity? Are you ready to make the sacrifices essential to promote it? Are you ready to lay aside every weight and every other concern, and enter heart and soul into the promotion of a spiritual awakening in your community? Are you ready to fulfill all the conditions upon which a revival can be had? In view of the solemn judgment, decide as you will wish you had when you stand before Jesus!
– Charles Finney –

Tempting Sin – Thomas Brooks

To venture upon the occasion of sin, and then to pray, “Lead us not into temptation,” is the same as to thrust thy finger into the fire, and then pray that it may not be burnt.
– Thomas Brooks –

Walking as Christ Walked – Andrew Murray

He who seeks to abide in Christ must walk even as He walked. A branch bears fruit of the same sort as the vine to which it belongs. The life of the vine and the branch is so completely identical that the manifestation of that life must be identical too. When the Lord Jesus redeemed us with His blood, and presented us to the Father in His righteousness, He did not leave us in our old nature to serve God as best we could. No. In Him dwelt eternal life, and every one who is in Him receives from Him that same eternal life in its holy, heavenly power. So He that abides in Him must also walk even as He walked.
– Andrew Murray –

God’s Grace Works Often in a Silent and Secret Way – Thomas Brooks

God oftentimes works grace in a silent and secret way and takes sometimes five, sometimes ten, sometimes fifteen, sometimes twenty years; yea, sometimes more, before he will make a clear and satisfying report of his own work upon the soul.

– Thomas Brooks –
from Heaven on Earth: A Treatise on Christian Assurance,1654

Falling Into Water – Thomas Watson

It is not falling into water that drowns, but lying in it. It is not falling into sin that damns, but lying in it without repentance.

– Thomas Watson –
from The Doctrine of Repentance, 1668