1月3日

I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision. (Acts 26:19)

Life is not as idle ore,
But iron dug from central gloom,
...
And batter'd by the shocks of doom
To shape and use.

Thank God for the sight of all you have never yet been. The vision is not an ecstasy or a dream, but a perfect understanding of what God wants, it is the Divine light making manifest the calling of God. You may call the vision an emotion or a desire, but it is something that absorbs you. Learn to thank God for making known His demands. You have had the vision, but you are not there yet by any means. You have seen what God wants you to be but what you are not yet. Are you prepared to have this 'iron dug from central gloom' battered into 'shape and use'? 'Battering' conveys the idea of a black-smith putting good metal into right useful shape. The batterings of God come in commonplace days and commonplace ways, God is using the anvil to bring us into the shape of the vision. The length of time it takes God to do it depends upon us. If we prefer to loll on the mount of transfiguration, to live on the memory of the vision, we are of no use to live with the ordinary stuff of which human life is made up. We have not to live always in ecstasy and conscious contemplation of God, but to live in reliance on what we saw in the vision when we are in the midst of actualities. It is when we are going through the valley to prove whether we will be the 'choice' ones, that most of us turn tail; we are not prepared for the blows which must come if we are going to be turned into the shape of the vision.

So Send I You 26

Chambers/Thoughts/1-3

1月3日