Your prayer is a good and needful one, and we do rejoice to stand with you in it, for it is not the mere hearers of the Word, but the doers of it who are blessed.
You have asked that you may be a good doer and listener of the Word, that your actions may be good and that you may teach others the good you have heard and do it yourself. This is the very obedience of faith of which the Scripture speaks. Faith is the fountain, the foundation and the fosterer of obedience, and faith is the morning star of obedience. We do not obey to earn grace, but because grace has already made us whole. He that said to the sick man, rise and made him whole, by that same word of power made him take up his bed and walk. So it is with us. The same Word that heals the sickness of our sin constrains us to obedience, and the authority of Jesus is supreme because from His lips we received the Word which healed us.
Take your Bible and let Him speak to you again out of the Word, and may the same thrill which awoke you out of your death sleep wake you out of all present lethargy. Receive the Word not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the Word of God, which effectually works in them that believe. Tremble at His Word, for to this man will the Lord look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit and trembles at His Word. The Word of God is quick and powerful and a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart, and it will lay bare the secret thoughts of the soul that we may walk in the light.
Remember also that the exactness of obedience is the essence of obedience. True obedience is not the obedience of a slave tuned to the crack of the whip, nor the obedience of terror, but the obedience of a child, the obedience of love. It does not say, I will go thus far and no further, but it turns not to the right hand nor to the left, and follows the Lord wholly. If any is a hearer of the Word and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a mirror, for he beholds himself and goes his way and immediately forgets what manner of man he was. May the Lord keep you from such forgetfulness.
And from you, as from those at Thessalonica, may there sound out the Word of the Lord. When you have received it with conviction, speak it with the accent of conviction to others, telling out simply the story of the Cross, that sinners may be brought to Christ who came into the world to save sinners.
We join our prayers with yours now.
O Father of all grace, we thank Thee for putting this desire into our brother's heart, for every good desire cometh from Thee. Work in him a true hearing that trembles at Thy Word and a true doing that flows from faith in Christ Jesus who alone saves. Make him wholehearted and cheerful in obedience, not of dread but of love. Grant him favor in Thy sight through the blood of Thy Son, and let Thy will be done in all things Thou seest fit to grant, whether in blessing or in trial. Strengthen him to stand against principalities and powers and spiritual wickedness in high places, clothed in the whole armor of God, strong in the Lord and in the power of Thy might. Let Thy Word be as a sword in his hand and in his heart, and let Thy glory be seen in his life and sounded out to others, that Christ may be honored in all things. This we humbly ask in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, with thanksgiving. Amen.
