“You may as soon persuade a king to throw down
his royal diadem and wallow in the mud with his robes on, as convince a saint
to sin when his heart is filled with the expectation of heaven's glory. Heaven is the royal city where God keeps His court.
The joy of angels is to stand there before God: "I am Gabriel, that stand
in the presence of God Luke 1:19. That is, "I am one of those heavenly
spirits who wait on God, and stand before His face, as courtiers wait upon
their prince." Every faithful soul is promised this honor.
Nothing should
have a more powerful effect upon a saint's spirit than to consider his blissful
estate in heaven as being the reward of all his conflicts here on earth. This
sword should cut the very sinews of temptation and behead those lusts which
defy whole troops of other arguments. How can sin coexist with the hope of such
glory? It is when the thoughts of heaven are long out of the Christian's sight,
and he forgets his hope of that glorious place, that he begins to set up some
idol as Israel set up the calf and worshipped it in the absence of Moses. Only
let heaven come into view, and the Christian's heart will be well warmed with
thoughts of it. You may as soon persuade a king to throw down his royal diadem
and wallow in the mud with his robes on, as convince a saint to sin when his
heart is filled with the expectation of heaven's glory.
Sin is a devil's
work, not a saint's. The saint waits every hour for the summons that will call
him to stand with angels and glorified saints before the throne of God. How
this should cheer and sustain his heart when the fight is hottest and the
bullets fly thickest! If he must go through fire and water to reach it, what is
that discomfort compared to the eternal comfort of heaven? Keeping the joy of
heaven always before you will help you to run your race with patience. It will
help you endure your short scuffles with temptation and affliction. What is
more, it will make you reckon also that these afflictions "are not worthy
to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us" Romans 8:18.”
Quoted material from, ”The Christian in Complete
Armour Daily Readings in Spiritual Warfare” by Gurnall and James S Bell.
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