MANY NEVER CROSS OVER INTO GOD'S PROMISED LAND
 
                                     By A. W. Tozer
 
                And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh
     with the affections and lusts.               --- Galatians 5:24
 
        It is very important for earnest Christian believers to
     understand that long prayer vigils, along with strong
     crying and tears, are not in themselves meritorious acts.

                We must be settled in our knowledge that every
     blessing flows out of the goodness of God as from a
     fountain.  Even those rewards for good works about
     which some Bible teachers talk so fulsomely, and which
     they always set in sharp contrast to the benefits received
     by grace alone, are at bottom.

        The holiest apostle can claim no more than that he is
     an unprofitable servant. The very angels exist out of the
     pure goodness of God.  No  creature can "earn" anything
     in the usual meaning of the word.

        All things are by and of the sovereign goodness of
     God!

        Yet for all God's good will toward us He is unable to
     grant us our heart's desires until all our desires have
     been reduced to one. When we have dealt with our
     carnal ambitions, when we have trodden upon the lion
     and adder of the flesh, have trampled the dragon of self-
     love under our feet and have truly reckoned ourselves to
     have died unto sin, then and only then can God raise us
     to newness of life and fill us with His blessed Holy Spirit!
 
        For every one that actually crosses over into the
     Promised Land there are many who stand for a while
     and look longingly across the river and then turn sadly
     back to the comparative safety of the sandy wastes of
     the old life!
               -------------------------------------------------------------------
     Yours in Christ,
     Paul N. F.