“DECISION IN CHARACTER BUILDING”
“How long halt
ye between two opinions? If the Lord be God follow him, but if Baal, follow
him.”-I Kings
18:21.
Multitudes are in an
undecided condition of mind, not only as respects the worship of God, and as
respects their faith, but also in regard to the common affairs of life. They
are not devoid of good intentions, good resolutions, hopes and ambi-tions; but
these are rather vague and shapeless. Their thoughts, their intentions, have
not crystallized. As a result they are making little progress and
accomplishing little good, either in or for themselves or others. Even worldly
people who manifest great decision in business and social and moral matters
lack decision in religious affairs.
The poet has truly said, “Life is real, life is earnest; and the grave is not
the goal;” but the difficulty with many is that they have not even so good a
goal as the grave would be. If they could even have that before their mind as
an end; if they could even think of how they would wish to terminate their
lives eventually, and leave some luminous foot prints in the sands of time that
would be helpful to others and an honor to themselves, it would be very much
better, indeed, than to pass through life with no aim, no wish, no thought,
except to eat, to drink, to sleep, to gratify earthly tastes. We believe that
it is even much better that men set their ambition upon money or fame or some
other object, than to have no fixed purpose before them in life; yet money and
fame and such matters end with the grave, and the Lord’s consecrated people,
inspired by new hopes, new aims, new am-bitions, beyond the grave, have much
advantage every way over all others.
Nevertheless, even those who have been so highly favored of God that the eyes
of their understanding have been opened,-that they have caught glimpses of the
glorious things in reservation for the Lord’s faithful, are frequently lax and
measurably indifferent to these wonderful things which should induce them to
zeal and inspire them with courage and strength. What is the difficulty? Why
do they not accom-plish more? The answer frequently should be that it is
be-cause of indecision. They should decide promptly, but they hesitate-holding
important questions in abeyance, and con-tinuing to balance and to weigh
matters which they already determined are right. They halt between two
opinions; they hesitate to take the Lord’s Word fully and entirely and to walk
boldly forward in the right direction, even when they clearly discern the
footsteps of Jesus and the proper course for them as his followers. As one
point after another comes up and is thus set aside indefinitely, the whole
Christian course of that individual is stagnated and fresh duties and
privileges as they appear, are stopped in the way by the muddle of mind-which
unsettled questions of years produce; thus indecision has more or less hindered
them all their lives. By and by there is such an accumulation of undecided
points and matters that they feel the case is almost hopeless, be-come
discouraged, grow cold, indifferent, and perhaps fall com-pletely away from the
faith and its service.
For all such our text is especially appropriate. We want to decide, first of
all, who is our Master, who is our God; then, having concluded,-we want to
decide promptly that his servants we should and will be. The Master
warned us of the impossibility of any other course being satisfactory, saying,
“Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” Attempt to do so will make us and all with
whom we are particularly identified unhappy. Almost everyone will acknowledge
that there is a Supreme Being, and that it is the duty of his creatures, to
serve and obey him. The whole question then should be, not as to obedience and
service, but merely, Who is our God? We see many of the worshipers of Baal,
Mammon, energetic in their service, and we should feel ashamed if we who, by
the grace of God, know the true God and his gracious plan, are not as zealous,
as persevering, as energetic, as are the servants of error. “What manner of
persons ought we to be?” We ought most positively to be committed to that which
we be-lieve to be the truth, and we ought to be most zealous in its service.
A part of the mistake is in the exercise of a wrong kind of
caution;-proper enough in respect to earthly affairs, in which we have to guard
our interests against unscrupulous fellows; but out of place, impedimenta, in
our dealings with God. This wrong caution says,-Do nothing, until you see how
it will all end;-I must walk by mental sight at least. But this kind of
worldly wisdom will not do, in dealing with God. He makes the rules by which
we may approach him and progress in his favor. One of his rules is, that every
item of truth we learn must be accepted and acted upon before we are ready for
more. They that receive the truth in the love of it, will surely serve it with
all the decision they can com-mand and acquire;-piece by piece, as they receive
it. They who on receiving truth balance it and ponder long whether it will not
ultimately cost too much, thus give evidence that their love for the truth is
not great enough,-that it is mixed with selfishness. Such must cultivate love
of the truth until it outweighs all other things, else they will not be fit for
the kingdom. The Lord’s charge against those who are about to fall in the
present testing time, is that,-They received not the truth in the love of it.-
2 Thes. 2:10-12.
“CHOOSE YE THIS DAY”
After Israel had reached the promised land, Joshua sought to bring them to such
a point of decision. He called them together, recited to them the Lord’s favor
and blessing en-joyed thus far, and expressed himself in noble language,
say-ing, “Choose ye this day whom ye will serve; . . . . as for me and my
house, we will serve the Lord.” (Josh. 24:15) So, dear friends, we who realize
that the Lord has been bless-ing, guiding and sustaining us in the past, should
come to a full, positive decision as respects our course of life. We should
not be content for one moment longer to go along indefinitely, serving whiles
the Lord, and whiles Mammon (selfishness). We should settle the matter at
once, and for all time, that we will be the Lord’s.
The very fact of coming to a positive decision is a great blessing and a great
help in the formation of character. Every time we come to a decision, on any
question, it strength-ens mind and character and makes us that much more ready
for another test-along some other line, perhaps. One deci-sion for the right prepares
the way for others in the same direction, just as hesitancy, indecision upon
one point pre-pares us for hesitancy upon all points, and more or less stops
our Christian progress and character-building.
We are not advocating rashness-the doing of something without a reasonable,
proper amount of consideration. But we are urging upon the Lord’s people the
cultivation of promptness, decision of mind, in respect to questions we have
sufficiently examined. Some things may of necessity re-quire pondering, but
many things in life require no such delay to reach a proper decision.
The majority of the questions which present themselves before the bar of our
minds could be decided in a moment; and the less time we take in reaching a
decision on such problems the better for us, and for the upbuilding of proper
character in this regard.
We need to have some touchstone, as it were, some
matter which will help us to decide, which will enable the mind to reach a
decision quickly. This touchstone should be God’s will; so that
to perceive the Lord’s will in respect to any question would be to settle it-as
quickly as discerned. There should be no thought of opposing the divine
will. There should be no temporizing, no haggling to see what a thing would
cost, once we discern that it is the Lord’s will. There should be no further
question about the rejection of any mat-ter which we discern to be contrary to
the Lord’s will; no matter how enticing, no matter how much of profit or of
ad-vantage there may be connected therewith.
Ability to decide quickly, and to decide always on the
right side, what the Lord’s will is, requires some experience and discipline;
but the sooner we begin the sooner we will be-come proficient; the more
energetically we set ourselves to know the Lord’s will and to do it, and to
show him by our promptness that we delight to do his will, the better and the
quicker will we find our characters established on proper lines.
There are many gods presenting their claims to us, and seeking our
reverence. To some, perhaps to the vast ma-jority, self is the most prominent
idol and false god; to others it is fame; to others the family; to others
wealth. But all these false gods are more or less related, and the one name,
Mammon, selfishness, is appropriate to them all. It requires not a great deal
of discernment to decide that none of these ambitions is worthy of us, and that
the worship of our hearts and the sacrifices of life should all be to the true
God.
TODAY IF YOU SHOULD HEAR HIS VOICE, OBEY!
The Scriptures appeal to us along these lines of prompt decision, and it
is because these appeals are neglected, not obeyed, that many of the Lord’s
people are so lean and so un-developed, both in knowledge and in character.
Mark the ap-peal, “Today, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.”
The suggestion is that the matter be not put off for another day. We cannot
tell how distinctly we will hear the voice of the Lord’s providence speaking to
us tomorrow. On the contrary, we know that even as we may become ac-customed
to an earthly call, or an earthly alarm, so that by and by it would cease to
awaken us, so our spiritual ears be-come accustomed to the important messages
reaching them from the Lord’s Word. They will have less and less weight and influence,
and will become less and less helpful to us in pro-portion as we neglect them
and fail to act upon them. Does not this explain the fact that some who have
newly come into the truth, are farther along both in faith and good works than
some whose ears were blest long ago?
We are still in the beginning of a new year and a new century, and now is a
favorable time for us to make good resolutions. One of these should surely be
that henceforth we will cultivate decision of character;-that when we hear the
voice of the Lord we will respond promptly. So that when we see a work of the
Lord, which we have the privilege of at-tending to, it will be performed not
only willingly and well, but also speedily. “The Lord loveth a cheerful
giver”-a prompt giver;-not merely as respects money matters, as this text is
generally applied, but in respect to all of our little of-ferings and
sacrifices to him and for his cause’ sake. If we would be pleasing to the Lord
and grow in his favor and in nearness to him, we must bring our hearts more and
more into the condition that he approves, that he loves; viz., heartiness,
cheerfulness, promptness in every service we may render. The trouble with many
Christians is, that they have not thor-oughly learned what a great privilege we
of this Gospel age enjoy,-in being permitted to present our little sacrifices
and self-denials to the Lord, under the assurance that our im-perfect works
shall be acceptable through Christ to God.
We have all noted with pleasure the wonderful success of that wonderful
Apostle Paul. It is well, therefore, that we shall note that one of the chief
elements contributing to the success of his apostleship was this element of
character decision. Mark how this quality of his shines out in the statement,
“This one thing I do,” etc. He had only one real aim or purpose in life,
toward which he was bending all his energies. He had cast aside all others as
weights and hind-rances, and as not being worthy to be compared with this one
service, so high in its point of privilege. The one thing he did was to serve
the Lord, to serve the brethren, to serve the truth. All other matters were,
secondary to this. If he could accomplish this one thing the results would be
so blessed, so happifying, both now and everlastingly, that he could afford to
count all other things and objects and aims as loss and dross and not worthy of
comparison.-Phil. 3:7, 8, 13, 14.
This is the spirit that all of the Lord’s overcoming people should
have. All do not have this character or quality of disposition by nature;
but in proportion as we lack, the Lord will reckon to us of his own merit to
compensate, if he finds in us the spirit, the will, the disposition, to thus
follow the example of Jesus and the apostles and all the faithful. If we are
weak in this respect, lacking in this quality of deci-sion and firmness of
character, we need to be more alert, and to go the more frequently to the
throne of grace to obtain mercy and to find grace to help. But those who are
natur-ally weak, and who yet have tried this matter according to the lines here
laid down,-who have sought to cultivate this principle of character and
decision and firmness for the right, give abundant testimony that the Lord is
their helper and that in thus following the directions of his Word and the
ex-amples of faithfulness they have become strong in the Lord and in power of
his might. May this be a blessed year for all the faithful in Christ Jesus,
along the lines of character building, energy and firmness for the right and
for the truth, as God grants us to see these.
Let us not forget that it is just such a class that the Lord is seeking,
to be the bride and joint-heir of his Son. He is not looking for those who are
perfect in this respect; for there is weakness along this line throughout the
whole human family; there is none perfect in this or in other re-spects, none
fit for the kingdom by nature. It will encour-age us, perhaps to remember that
the Lord is taking the weak things of the world and making them strong, and
that in proportion as we submit our wills to his will we are trans-formed by
the renewing of our minds, and that he thus works in us to will and to do his
good pleasure in the establish-ment of strong, decisive characters, through the
promises of his Word. To it, as represented in Jesus, he exhorts us to look,
while we endeavor to run with patience the race set be-fore us, trusting in him
who has redeemed us and called us and who has promised to be our ever-present
helper in every time of need.