February 18

The greatest day in our lives

“For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God” (Col. 3:3).
“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live: yet not I, but Christ liveth in me” (Gal. 2:20).

George Müller, who built five great orphanages and maintained them by simple faith in God, when asked the secret of his service, replied: “There was a day when I died,” and as he spoke he bent lower, until he almost reached the floor. Continuing, he added, “Died to George Müller, his opinions, preferences, tastes, and will; died to the world, its approval or censure; died to the approval or blame even of my brethren or friends; and since then I have studied only to show myself approved unto God.”
In later life he said: “I was converted in November, 1825, and I only came into full surrender of the heart four years later, in July, 1830. The love of money was gone, the love of place was gone. God, God, God, God alone became my portion. I found my all in Him. I wanted nothing else.


“I ask affectionately, my beloved brethren, have you fully surrendered your heart to God? Or is there this thing or that with which you are taken up irrespective of God?”
If we refuse to be corns of wheat falling into the ground and dying; if we will neither sacrifice prospect nor risk character and property and health, or when we are called, relinquish home and break family ties for Christ’s sake and His Gospel, then we shall abide alone.

“Buried with Christ,” and raised with Him too;
What is there left for me to do?
Simply to cease from struggling and strife,
Simply to “walk in newness of life.”

“Risen with Christ,” my glorious Head,
Holiness now the pathway I tread;
Beautiful thought, while walking therein:
“He that is dead is freed from sin.”

“Living with Christ,” Who “dieth no more,”
Following Christ, Who goeth before;
I am from bondage utterly freed,
Reckoning self as “dead indeed.”
—T. Ryder.

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