Doctrines of Prayer, Faith, and Peace by James Hastings: Hastings, James - Doctrine of Prayer: 018. Desire for Holiness

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Doctrines of Prayer, Faith, and Peace by James Hastings: Hastings, James - Doctrine of Prayer: 018. Desire for Holiness



TOPIC: Hastings, James - Doctrine of Prayer (Other Topics in this Collection)
SUBJECT: 018. Desire for Holiness

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IV.

DESIRE FOR HOLINESS.

The true prayer for forgiveness implies the germ of a real desire to be delivered not only from the penalty of sin, but from sin in itself, from its disorder, its bondage, its pollution. Apart from that desire, the prayer could receive no answer such as would be consistent with the holy love of God, because he who offered it would not be in a moral condition which is forgivable. It is a desire due to the action of the Holy Spirit. He convicts not only of sin by the revelation of its nature and effects; He convicts also of righteousness by the revelation of the character of the Man Christ Jesus, and of our supernatural capacities through incorporation with His new and sacred humanity.

Here is the imperishable power of the Miserere lifted by its inspiration beyond the circumstances which were the immediate cause of its composition. There is in that psalm not only the cry for pardon, but the desire for holiness; there is not only the vision of mercy, but the vision of restoration; there is not only the hope of reunion with the outward worship of the Church, but in that worship the penitential joy of the inward offering of the broken and contrite heart. In the Christian use of the same psalm we learn that in the act of Divine forgiveness there is no element of moral laxity. The pardon meets the desire for holiness, however rudimentary that desire may be, and it makes actual holiness a possibility. In his confession and in his prayer, the penitent desires an absolution which shall be not only an authoritative message of peace but also a gracious means of deliverance from sin’s power.

Our prayer must therefore be, “Lord, take my heart and cleanse it, for I cannot cleanse it myself; keep it Thyself, for I cannot keep it for Thee”. And He will answer the prayer. He will bring these poor sinful hearts of ours into such close fellowship with Himself that His holy nature will be transfused into ours; moment by moment we shall become larger sharers in His victory and His peace: and the hearts in which He dwells will become living temples, full of “thanksgiving and the voice of melody”. [Note: G. H. Knight, In the Secret of His Presence, 30.]