"The Christian ought
to rely on divine strength because this plan results in the greatest of
advancement of God's own glory (Eph. 1:4, 12).
If God had given you a lifetime supply of his grace to begin with and
left you to handle your own account, you would have thought him generous
indeed. But he is magnified even more by
the open account He sets up in your name.
Now you must acknowledge not only that your strength comes from God in
the first place, but that you are continually in debt for every withdrawal of
strength you make throughout your Christian course.
"When a child travels
with his parents, all his expenses are covered by his father-- not by
himself. Likewise, no saint shall say of
heaven when he arrives there, 'This is heaven, which I have built by the power
of my own might.' No, the heavenly
Jerusalem is a city 'whose builder and maker is God' (Heb. 11:10). Every grace is a stone in that building, the
topstone of which is laid in glory. Some
day the saints shall plainly see how God was not only the founder to begin, but
benefactor also to finish the same. The
glory of the work will not be crumbled out piecemeal, some to God and some to
the creature. All will be entirely
credited to God."
(William
Gurnall, The Christian In Complete Armour)
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