BYM ONLINE DESK Blessing September 2017 E magazine | Page 9

September 2017
Make Me A Man After Thine Own Heart!
Oswald J. Smith
consecrate them to Thee. May they never touch
anything that would dishonor Thee. May they never
go where Thou wouldst not be seen.
“Lord, here are my eyes; may they never look
upon anything that would grieve the Holy Spirit. May
my ears never listen to anything dishonoring to Thy
Name. May my mouth never be opened to speak a
word that I would not want Thee to hear. May my
mind never retain a thought nor an imagination that
would dim the sense of Thy presence.”
Putting God First
On November 8, 1927, my thirty-eighth
birthday, I prayed this prayer: “Lord, make me a man
after Thine Own heart.” Work faded out of sight;
things that before seemed important disappeared;
everything in which I was interested took a secondary
place, and my own inner life before God was all that
mattered, all that was really worthwhile. And as I
paced back and forth in my room that day I prayed,
and prayed in the Spirit: “Lord, make me a man after
Thine Own heart.”
I saw as I had never seen before that the big
thing was not the work I was doing, the books I was
writing, the sermons I was preaching, the crowds that
gathered nor the success achieved; but rather the life I
was living, the thoughts I was thinking, heart
holiness, practical righteousness; in a word: my
transformation, by the Holy Spirit, into
Christlikeness.
God, I saw, demanded my undivided attention.
Everything else must take a second place. Friends
and loved ones, home, money, work, all even though
legitimate must give way to Christ! Day and night
my undivided attention must be given to Him. God
first! Such must be my attitude toward Him. Only
then would He be able to bless and use me.
In my relationship to God I saw that no other
and nothing else must come between. That just as a
husband comes first in the affections of his wife, and
vice versa, so God must come first in my heart. And
just as no marriage can ever be a happy marriage
where either husband or wife withhold their
undivided attention from each other, so my
fellowship with God could only be complete when
He had my undivided attention.
What He asked of me that day He asks of all
alike. Can it be that we would deny Him His right? Is
there anything in this world worthy of that attention
He claims? Why, then, do we withhold what He asks?
Is true joy to be found outside of God? Can we be
happy with “things”?
There came to me with new and deeper
meaning than ever before the words: “Oh, for a closer
walk with God.” My heart went out in a cry of
anguish for such an experience. “Enoch walked with
God” (Gen. 5:24). Could not I? Am not I more
precious to God than my work, my possessions? God
wanted me, not merely my service. Do “things” satisfy? “A man's life consisteth
not in the abundance of the things which he
possesseth” (Luke 12:15).
After that He led me out in prayer, a prayer that
would make me a man after His Own heart and these
were the petitions: “Lord, here are my hands; I He longs for our fellowship and communion.
To walk with Him moment by moment, right here in
the midst of a wicked and perverse generation, in a
world that has no use for a separated, Holy Ghost life,
God Has Made Us for Himself!
|PAGE 9|