2/22/11 - Walk Before God in Humility

This is from Imitation of Christ.  I read it for my devotional this morning.  I edited it a bit just to shorten it.

 

I titled this blog "Life in the Spirit" because that's what I'm searching for.  St. Paul mentions it in his writings here and there, but the description is fleeting.  The last paragraph of this text, written more than 500 years ago, gives as good a description as I can find anyhere.  

 

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THE VOICE OF CHRIST

 

MY CHILD, walk before Me in truth, and seek Me always in the simplicity of your heart. He who walks before Me in truth shall be defended from the attacks of evil, and the truth shall free him from seducers and from the slanders of wicked men. For if the truth has made you free, then you shall be free indeed, and you shall not care for the vain words of men.

 

I shall teach you those things which are right and pleasing to Me. Consider your sins with great displeasure and sorrow, and never think yourself to be someone because of your good works. You are truly a sinner. You are subject to many passions and entangled in them. Let nothing seem important or precious or desirable except that which is everlasting. Fear nothing, abhor nothing, and fly nothing as you do your own vices and sins; these should be more unpleasant for you than any material losses.

 

Some men walk before Me without sincerity. Led on by a certain curiosity and arrogance, they wish to know My secrets and to understand the high things of God, to the neglect of themselves and their own salvation. Through their own pride and curiosity, and because I am against them, such men often fall into great temptations and sins.
 

Some carry their devotion only in books, some in pictures, some in outward signs and figures. Some have Me on their lips when there is little of Me in their hearts. Others, indeed, with enlightened understanding and purified affections, constantly long for everlasting things; they are unwilling to hear of earthly affairs and only with reluctance do they serve the necessities of nature. These sense what the Spirit of truth speaks within them: for He teaches them to despise earthly things and to love those of heaven, to neglect the world, and each day and night to desire heaven.

 

--Imitation of Christ.  Book 3, Chapter 4 - WE MUST WALK BEFORE GOD IN HUMILITY AND TRUTH.   Link:  http://www.leaderu.com/cyber/books/imitation/imb3c01-10.html#RTFToC108