The great need of the Christian is to be strengthened by a gift of God, day by day. The highest perfection of the godly, says Calvin, in this life, is to desire advance, whether you are one year or whether you are fifty years old as a Christian. The highest endeavour is still be advancing, to be strengthened every day by the Spirit of God. There is a blessing for us – all the strength of God is poured out and made available to us for our sanctification and our improvement. His power – the infinite power of God is stood by to help you and me. Also the infinite knowledge of God, who best knows how to assist us and empower us and enable us. The holiness of God is ready to impart holiness to us. The love of God is on hand to bless us and to impart love to us. These are amazing things. The happiness of God – happiness is an infinite, eternal attribute of God and his mighty happiness is stood by to be imparted in measure to us and to bless us.
Does this mean, that sanctification and advance in the Christian life is an automatic process? God will just pour out mighty power and everything will just happen for me? Well, no, that is not what the apostle is implying. Do not believe those who say that sanctification is ‘let go, let God.’ Sanctification, opposing sin within us, striving for righteousness, means effort and focus and work. How do we do it? By praying for daily strength. There is something for us to do and the mighty power of God will be with us, as we seek to do it. We are saved people; this is not about the way to be saved. You can only be saved by grace, only by coming as a helpless, lost sinner and doing nothing towards your salvation but repenting of your sin and yielding your life to God. But once you are saved, there is much for us to do. But as we do it, the mighty power of God is ours to help us and enable us.
Young believers, you come to pray and sometimes it is very distressing and your mind thinks of anything but prayer, and the things that have engaged your attention through the day all flood into your mind, because it is time to pray. There are tremendous distractions. You beat them aside and as you come to pray, suddenly you are overwhelmed by tiredness and that hinders you from praying and there is one distraction after another, so you don’t pray. You have found the Lord, you have trusted in him, you have given him your life, you have been born again by the power of the Spirit and now you haven’t prayed. And it happens the next day and you begin to wonder, and the devil comes and whispers in your ear, ‘Are you saved at all? Look at you!’ And you think, ‘I am never going to keep this up. This is hopeless. I find devotions so unattractive.’ Look at this verse! All the mighty power of God is with you! Even if you forget to ask for his help, if you just but get on your knees and push aside the distractions and call upon his name and begin to worship him. Thank him for all that he has done. As you do it, the blessing of God comes and you begin to realise you are in his presence and you find your voice and your prayer takes flight. You are about to react badly to something at College, at work, something aggravating? Hold yourself in, check it and God will strengthen you. Do you lose your temper? Pray to God for help and when the moment comes, when you might just lose hold of your temper in an awful or a shameful way, because you seek to honour him and control yourself, the infinite power of God is on your side. Are you tempted? You have got the catalogues open: ‘I want the biggest and the best.’ Pull yourself away, and as you refrain from things that may have been a sore temptation before you were saved, you prove him. Are you nervous about mounting a witness? Do you shy away? Be bold. He will see you through; he will help you.