HIS GOLD (Rev. 3:18)
by Ruth Holmes

Gold is a very precious metal. Men and women everywhere have given their lives for it, going to strange places and countries to mine for it, thinking if they could only find it, they would live happily forever after. 

How foolish we are in our natural state! Let us take the advice of our dear Lord when He says, "I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich." This is to be bought not just one time, but daily, that we might truly be rich.

Oh, that everyone of us would listen to His counsel and take His advice. We would find that "His gold" is so precious that it buys all things, nothing is lacking, all things become ours (I Cor. 3:21). Where can you find gold as precious as this!! Here is salve for every wound, comfort for every sorrow, and ease for every pain.

To you who have not "bought" this gold, perhaps you think the price may be too high, and you could not afford to buy it. Fear not, The Lord says, "Ho! Everyone who thirsts, Come to the waters; And you who have no money, Come, buy and eat. Yes, come buy wine and milk, Without money and without price. Why do you spend money for what is not bread, And your wages for what does not satisfy" (Isa. 55:1-2)? 

This gold is free. All the Lord asks is that you come with an empty hand to receive all that He has to give you – the treasures of heaven and the riches of glory. If we do not come with an empty hand to receive it, one day we will hear the Lord say to us, "Be zealous and repent, or I will vomit you out of My mouth" (Rev. 3:16-19). These are not sweet words, but they are true words spoken in love. Let us thank Him for His love and concern, and take heed to His warning. The cure for lukewarmness is not our working, but is the working of the Holy Spirit in us. Any goodness, any beauty in us, is always and only because of His workmanship (Eph. 2:10, Phil. 2:13).

Come - buy this gold; it is the true gold - the riches of Christ - a sense of the evil our sin and its punishment, a longing for grace, purity, and usefulness, a love for our fellowmen, and a supreme love for God. 

David was continually "buying this gold" because he knew that indwelling sin in him would continually deaden the life of God in him. He knew that, apart from the Lord, he could do nothing (Jn. 15:5). That is why David prayed so often in Psalm 119 for the Lord to teach him (12), to open his eyes (18), to revive him (25), to strengthen him (28), to give him understanding (34), to save him (146), to hear his voice (149), to deliver him (153), to plead his cause (154), to let his soul live (175), and to seek Your servant (176). 

Oh Lord may you give each one of us such a heart, and may we come daily to Your fountain, to Your wells of salvation, with our empty pitchers filling them full of living water so that one day we may be crowned with that golden crown that you are making for us with Your own hands (S.O.S. 1:11, Psa. 21:3, Jn. 4:10,14).