July 31
If our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things (I John 3:20).
A Defeat Need Not Destroy Us
It is possible for the sanctified person to yield to temptation and thus fall into condemnation. One may be overcome at a weak point in a moment of sudden attack from Satan. This kind of defeat is not a sin of ignorance because, had the Christian thought about it, he would have known his conduct to be wrong. Yet such defeats must be distinguished from willful sin.
A failure of this kind brings condemnation immediately, but such condemnation does not mean that one is immediately a backslider and a practicing sinner. God is not so ready to leave us. The feeling of condemnation is God’s reminder to save us, not His notice that He has left us. John tells us, “If our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things.” If we are truly repentant, God knows it and deals with us in mercy. If we have been thus defeated we should at once acknowledge our defeat, confess it to Gad, and ask forgiveness, but never give up our faith.
Probably every sanctified Christian has had need of God’s mercy in such situations. Dr. J.
- Huffman writes: “Throughout my Christian life, I have made it a practice to right anything which was wrong, promptly upon discovering it. There have been many blunders on my part; but the blessed Holy Spirit has been faithful in all His dealings with me. In the language of the late Joseph
- Smith, ‘I have not slept outside of Canaan since the day that I entered that experience many years ago.'”
Help For Today
The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord: and he delighteth in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly east down: for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand (Psalms 37:23-24).