Take The Victory!

By F. B. Meyer

    Do you know what it is to get spoil out of temptation? Oh, that you knew what it is to be more than conquerors – not simply to be safe but to get spoil out of the enemy’s attacks!

    I will show you how to do this. When Satan comes to you to tempt you to impurity, turn to Jesus and take anew of His purity. When Stan tempts you to irritability of temper, turn to Jesus and take a new armful of His patience. When Satan tempts you to be cowardly and weak, turn to Jesus and take a new heartful of His courage.

    As your weakness throws you more upon the help of Jesus Christ and you lean harder upon Him, you turn what the devil meant to be a stumbling block into a stepping-stone. Oh, life is glorious when you live like that! The loneliness is gone, solitude is gone, the fear of failure is gone, the constant dread of being overcome by temptation is gone. You have the sense of everything being beneath your feet because you are in the glorious Lord and realize that Jesus Christ Himself is offering you wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption.

    Oh glorious riverlessness, that I may know His protection! Oh blessed poverty that reveals to me His wealth! Oh desirable loneliness that teaches me the friendship of the Brother Christ! Oh infirmity, and want and sorrow, we hail you all! Had it not been for sin abounding, we never should have known that His grace abounds over all. The glorious Lord is a place of broad rivers and streams.

    If that be so, we are all come to the position in which we can learn to take. I suppose almost the most important distinction a man can learn to make is that between praying for a thing and taking it. The lame take the spoil. It is not said that they pray for it.

    There was as much electricity in the days of Alfred as there is today. The only difference is that Edison has taught us how to get the electricity out of cloud and air, sunbeam and earth, and how to yoke it to our chariot. Edison knows how to take, and has taught the lesson to the world.

    Oh, I wish I could teach you how to take the Divine electricity into your lives today! It is not by praying for it, it is by taking it. You may be weak, sinful, full of failure. You may be at the end of yourself, but you are very near God…. You keep entreating Him to give you what He is all the time offering, but you must take.