Grow Up into Him

The question of forming habits on the basis of the grace of God is a very vital one. God regenerates us and puts us in contact with all His Divine resources, but He cannot make us walk according to His will; the practising is ours, not God’s. We have to take the initiative and “add to . . . faith virtue. . . .” To take the initiative means to make a beginning, and each one of us must do it for himself: We have to acquaint ourselves with the way we have to go; and beware of the tendency of asking the way when we know it perfectly well.

To “add” means to acquire the habit of doing things, and it is difficult in the initial stages. We are in danger of forgetting that we cannot do what God does and that God will not do what we can do. We cannot save ourselves or sanctify ourselves; God only can do that; but God does not give us good habits, He does not give us character, He does not make us walk aright; we must do all that. We have to work out what God has worked in (Philippians 2:12-13). Many of us lose out spiritually, not because the devil attacks us, but because we are stupidly ignorant of the way God has made us. Remember, the devil did not make the human body; he may have tampered with it, but the human body was created by God, and its constitution after we are saved remains the same as before. For instance, we are not born with a ready-made habit of dressing ourselves; we have to form that habit. Apply it spiritually—when we are born again, God does not give us a fully fledged series of holy habits, we have to make them; and the forming of habits on the basis of God’s supernatural work in our souls is the education of our spiritual life.