Thirsting for Fullness
Andrew Murray became a minister as a young man. And straight away in his letters and his writing, you can see a great desire for God, but at the same time you can see some of his spiritual struggles. And in a sense, this is encouraging to us because often we see great people of the faith as giants that we would never be able to emulate.
Andrew Murray’s Struggles
Murray struggled with his own lack of faith. Look at what he says here on page 56: “The thought of my own lack of entire devotion and especially of believing, pleading, prayer of a thousand collected opportunities of God's free grace get me quite bewildered.”
He says “Perhaps that is just what God intends. For then I'm obliged simply to flee to the Master I serve and to seek for grace for a new and more entire surrender to his work.” And he talks about how he longs for the deeper filling of the Spirit, but how often his flesh refuses it. And he prays in this little passage that in the coming years of his ministry, he will be more filled with the Spirit.
We All Struggle in Our Faith
I wonder if you can relate to Andrew Murray here. You long for more fullness from God, but you realize more and more that the flesh gets in the way. You know that you are lacking the fullness, but you just aren't quite getting there.
Well, maybe like him, you need to realize that God intends you to fly to Him in moments like it. When you realize ‘I’m not quite where I should be’, God wants you to use that realization to draw nearer to him and pray for a fuller outpouring of his Spirit into you. He wants you to come to him and like Murray said here, make a new and more entire surrender to his work. It is only when are entirely consecrated to God and entirely trusting in his filling of the Spirit that his power begins to really work in us.
A New Fullness For All
And you know what? In Murray's life, we see this happen, because in years to come, he would claim the fullness of the Holy Spirit. And he did wonderful works for God. But it took him a while to get there, just as it takes us a while to get there. Friends today, if you are thirsting for a more entire filling with the Holy Spirit, come to him. Give yourself to Him with all your heart. And then friends believe. Believe that he has filled you and given you that grace. And then in those moments, when temptation comes, flee back to God and say, “I am filled with your Spirit. And so I will walk on in the spirit and not in the flesh.” Murray did it. You and I can do it, too.
