By Jessie Penn Lewis

      "Be imitators of God, therefore as dearly beloved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God". - Ephesians 5:1-2

      God can do such a work in us by His Spirit, that all that He commands us to do will come about naturally, and not because we feel we ought to do it. To make up our mind to praise God is good, but it is very much better to be so filled with the Holy Spirit that you cannot help praising! What God wants out of us He will first put in. The secret of power for living and service is to go to the Cross and get rid of the obstacles to the outflow of the spirit of God, and then ask God for the new life that will bring forth the new fruit.

      I often hear of things God's children say and do which most grieve Him - and it seems hopeless to speak to them about it. The best thing is to ask God to put a new life and new spirit into them so that they will not do these things.

      If you have a little child and are constantly saying, " You must not, you must not," you will soon crush the personality of that child. You need to show him how to have a new life within, so that he will want to do what is right. God does not expect to get out of us one thing but what He has put into us! Do let us toil, dear fellow-workers, to lead His children into a life, and then let that Life manifest itself through their personalities. God does not want us to be all of the same pattern. He will express Himself through each individual in a different way. Just as there are not two faces alike, so He has not made two of us alike in any way, and we must take care that we do not try to mould ourselves or others after the pattern of any other human being.