Grow in Grace

I can’t help but share these excerpts from Hannah Whitall Smith’s book, A Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life.

Grace. . . is the unhindered, wondrous, boundless love of God, poured out upon us in an infinite variety of ways without measure. Although we do not deserve it, grace comes from the measureless heart of love. (160)

Put together all the tenderest love you know, the deepest and strongest you have ever felt, heap upon it all the love of all the loving human hearts in the world, multiply it by infinity, and you will begin perhaps have some faint glimpse of the love and grace of God!

In order to grow in grace, the soul must be planted in the very heart of this divine love, enveloped by it, steeped in it. The soul must give itself to the joy of it, and must refuse to know anything else. Day by day the soul must entrust everything to the care of this divine love and must not doubt that all will be well ordered. (161)

. . . though we may work hard trying to make beautiful spiritual garments for ourselves, and though we may work hard in our efforts to gain spiritual growth, we shall accomplish nothing. For no man by taking thought can add one cubit to his stature, and no array of ours can ever equal the beautiful dress with which the great Husbandman (God) clothes the plants that grow in His garden of grace and under His fostering care.

If I could make each of my readers realize how utterly helpless we are in this matter of growing, I am convinced a large part of the strain would be taken out of many lives at once.

Imagine a child possessed of the worry that he would not grow unless he made some personal effort to do so. Suppose he tried to use a combination of ropes and pulleys to stretch himself up to the desired height. He might, it is true, spend his days and years in weary strain. There would be no changing the fact that “No man by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature.” His weary efforts would be only wasted, and might even actually hinder the long-awaited end.

Neither a child nor a lily is ever found doing such a vain and foolish thing as trying to grow. But I fear many of God’s children are doing exactly this foolish thing. They know that they ought to grow, and they feel within them an instinct that longs for growth. But instead of letting the divine Husbandman care for their growing, as it surely His business to do, they try to accomplish it themselves. Consequently, they waste their energies and find themselves not growing at all.

What we all need is to “consider the lilies of the field” and learn their secret. Grow, by all means, dear Christians, but grow in God’s way. See to it that you are planted in grace, and then let the divine Husbandman cultivate you in His own way and by His own means. Put yourselves out in the sunshine of His presence and let the dew of heaven come down upon you. See what the results will be. Leaves and flowers and fruit must come in their season, for your Husbandman is skillful and never fails in His harvesting. Only see to it that you do not hinder the shining of the Sun of Righteousness, or the falling of the dew from heaven. The thinnest covering may serve to keep off the sunshine and the dew, causing the plant to wither. So the slightest barrier between your soul and Christ may cause you to dwindle and fade as a plant in a cellar or under a bush. Keep the sky clear. Receive the blessed influences your divine Husbandman may bring to bear upon you. Bask in the sunshine of His love. Drink of the waters of His goodness. Keep your face upturned to Him as the flowers do the sun. Look, and your soul will live and grow. (162-164)

It is the great prerogative of your divine Husbandman that He is able to turn any soil, whatever it may be like, into the soil of grace, the moment we put our growing into His hands. He does not need to transplant us into a different field. Right where we are, with just the circumstances that surround us, He makes His sun to shine and His dew to fall upon us. He transforms the very things that were our greatest hindrances to the most blessed means of our growth. I don’t care what the circumstances may be, His wonder-working power can accomplish this. We must trust Him with it all. We can trust. And if He sends storms, or winds, or rains, or sunshine, all must be accepted at His hands with the most unwavering confidence that He who has undertaken to cultivate us and to bring us to maturity, knows the very best way of accomplishing His end. (165-166)

. . . what is needed for happy and effective service is simply to put your work into the Lord’s hands and leave it there. Do not take it to Him in prayer, saying, “Lord, guide me. Lord, give me wisdom. Lord, arrange for me,” and then rise from your knees, take the burden all back, and try to guide and arrange for yourself. Leave it with the Lord. (183)

If we are to walk as Christ walked, it must be in private as well as in public, at home as well as abroad. It must be every hour all day long, and not at stated periods or on certain fixed occasions. We must be Christlike everywhere and to all. It is in daily living that practical holiness can best show itself, and we may well question any “professions” that fail under this test of daily life.

An anxious Christian, a discouraged, gloomy Christian, a doubting Christian, a complaining Christian, an exacting Christian, a selfish Christian, a cruel, hard-hearted Christian, a self-indulgent Christian, a Christian with a sharp tongue or bitter spirit, may be a very earnest worker and have an honorable place in the Church. But, he or she is not a Christlike Christian, and knows nothing of the lessons of this book concerning the higher Christian life. (188)

I have noticed that wherever someone has been truly faithful following the Lord, several things have inevitably followed sooner or later. Meekness and quietness of spirit in time become characteristics of the daily life. A submissive acceptance of the will of God is shown as it comes in the hourly events of each day. There is a willingness in the believer whose life is in the hands of God to do or to suffer all the good pleasure of His will. There is sweetness when provoked. There is a calmness in the midst of turmoil. There is a yielding to the wishes of others, and an insensibility to slights and affronts. There is absence of worry or anxiety. There is deliverance from care and fear. . .

We see such Christians sooner or later laying aside thoughts of self and becoming full of consideration for others. They dress and live in simply healthful ways. They renounce self-indulgent habits and surrender all purely fleshly gratifications. Some helpful work for others is taken up, and useless occupations are dropped out of life. God’s glory, and the welfare of His creatures, become the absorbing delight of the soul. The voice is dedicated to Him, to be used in singing His praises. Money is placed at His disposal. The pen is dedicated to write for Him. The lips are dedicated to speak for Him. The hands and the feet are dedicated to do His bidding. Year after year such Christians are seen to grow more unworldly, serene, heavenly-minded, transformed, and more like Christ, until even their faces express so much of the beautiful, inward, divine life, that all who look at them can see that they live with Jesus. They are abiding in Him. (190)