BEING REVIVED EVERY MORNING
In Matthew 13:43 the over comers are likened to the sun shining forth in the kingdom of their Father. The sun rises afresh every morning. If we are to be the over comers, the sun, we must also rise up every morning to be revived by the Lord. Proverbs 4:18 says, “The path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, / Which shines brighter and brighter until the full day.” We should follow the sun to be revived and to have a new start every morning. Our path is like the dawning light that shines more and more until the full day. I like Paul’s expression in 2 Corinthians 4:16—“day by day.” The Christian life does not only have one day. We are being renewed day by day. This means that day after day we have to be revived by the Lord. Yesterday morning we may have had a revival, but this morning we need another one, and tomorrow we need another one. Every year we need three hundred sixty-five revivals to be renewed day by day.
Many times when we are suffering, we are questioning, “Why am I suffering? What is the reason?” Many Christian teachers tell people that if they are careful to obey the Lord, they will have less suffering, but the experiences of many spiritual people throughout the history of the church have been just the opposite. While we are in the midst of suffering, we need to receive the renewing. Otherwise, the suffering we pass through means nothing to us. Within us there is a refuge. This refuge is our spirit. We need to turn from our mind to our spirit. Then we are safeguarded, hidden, and concealed from any attacks. It is in our spirit that we will be renewed.
We may feel that many of the things that we pass through are not fair, but we need to realize that the cross is not fair. When Pilate sentenced the Lord Jesus to death, was that fair? Was the Lord Jesus put on the cross fairly? What was fair that happened to the Lord Jesus? Everything that happened to the Lord Jesus was not fair. We should not say, “This is not fair.” No suffering is fair. The Lord could respond to us in this way: “Yes, the suffering itself is not fair, but My calling you to suffer is fair. I am fully right in placing you into this unfair treatment so that you can receive the renewing.” Some of us may still be under a certain amount of suffering. We have to learn how to turn to our spirit. That is our refuge, our hiding place, to receive the renewing. Because we are human, according to our thinking and our consideration, what we are passing through is not fair. We may not even be able to take the situation we are in, but when we come to the Word, regardless of what chapter or verse, the word will wash us. There is water in the word to wash us. Washing is a synonym of renewing.
I would also like to say something about the Lord’s table meeting. Whenever we come to the Lord’s table, we need renewing. When the Lord Jesus established the table, He said, “I shall by no means drink of this product of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in the kingdom of My Father” (Matt. 26:29). The Lord established a principle here. He will never take an old table. The table He set up was new, and the table He will take in the kingdom of His Father will be new. We have to come to the Lord’s table in a new way, in the principle of newness. How can we come to the table in newness? We need to realize that anything negative is a cause and a factor of oldness. Negative things cause us to be old.
When we come to the Lord’s table, we first have to make a thorough confession of all the negative things, and we have to deal with all the negative things. We have to confess and deal with any negative things between us and God and between us and men. Our relationship should be right and positive with God and with man (Acts 24:16)
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