" I want you to be very bold
in saying, "It is for me." But then I want you to fall down very low and
say, "I can not seize it; I can not take it to myself." And how can
you then get it? Praise God, if once He has brought you down in the
consciousness of utter helplessness and self-despair, then comes the time
that He can draw nigh and ask you, "Will you trust your God to work this
in you?" Dearly beloved Christians, say in your heart: "I never, by any
effort, can take hold of God, or seize this for myself; it is God must
give it." Cherish this blessed impotence. It is He who brought us out, who
Himself must bring us in. It is your greatest happiness to be impotent.
Pray God by the Holy Spirit to reveal to you this true impotence, and that
will open the way for your faith to say, "Lord, Thou must do it, or it
will never be done." God will do it. People wonder, when they hear so many
sermons about faith, and such earnest pleading to believe, and ask why it
is they can not believe. There is just one answer: It is self.
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