Prayer for a Worthy Walk, VIII of ?

Prayer For A Worthy Walk

Colossians 1:9-10

“For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;”

The Soul Influenced by the Beauty of Divine Things

This petition has respect to an affectionate and operative knowledge, which is increased as the child of God is favored with a better understanding of divine objects. The clearer and fuller are his views of them, the more is his heart drawn out to them. The more we perceive the ineffable beauty of divine things, the more the soul is sensibly influenced by them. Those things on which the Christian’s love is to be placed, particularly the divine precepts, must be discerned in their true nature and excellence before there can be spiritual delight in them. When there is no spiritual understanding of spiritual things, there can be no spiritual pleasure in them. We are deceived if we suppose our love for God’s commandments is increasing unless there is a growing realization of their worth. There can be no growth of spiritual love without an increase of spiritual knowledge. The more a Christian knows the importance and value of God’s rule, the more he will be occupied with it. The defect of much modern religion is that it either attempts to stir the emotions by sentimental appeals, or exhorts the exercise of love without presenting those things which feed love and spontaneously draw it forth.

Faith is fed by knowledge and works by love. Therefore, the fuller and deeper is the soul’s experimental acquaintance with God and the more his affections are drawn out to and centered on Him, the more will faith and love produce that obedience which is honoring to Him. As spiritual knowledge of the Lord, as He is revealed to the heart, causes us to put our trust in Him (Psa. 9:10), as believing sight in Him as our suffering Surety opens the floodgates of evangelical repentance (Zech. 12:10), so a sense of our deep indebtedness to Him, a spirit of gratitude, issues in acceptable obedience. The more we apprehend God’s infinite worthiness, the more we shall strive to walk worthily before Him. The more we behold His excellence, the more our hearts will be warmed toward Him. The more intimate and constant is our communion with Him, the more shall we delight ourselves in Him, and the more tender shall we be of those things which grieve Him. So too the more we perceive of the high sovereignty and majesty of God, the more we shall be awed by and be amenable to His authority, and the more diligent we shall be in cleaving to the only path in which fellowship with Him can be enjoyed - the path of obedience to His blessed will.