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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).
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