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Why do we grow so little in grace?

Cover of Tileston’s Joy and Strength for the Pilgrim’s Day

Today's Devotional

Why do we grow so little in grace? It is because we do not use our intellect to meditate upon the forces of the unseen world amidst which we live, or our will to draw upon them. We know that we are weak, and sin and Satan are strong, and we know the truth. But there is a third power stronger than either our weakness or the forces of evil, which we commonly forget, and which will never disclose itself except in our using of it. We must stir up the gift within us. Within us we have the Spirit of power, the Spirit of Jesus, the life of Jesus. It remains to us to appeal to it; in constant acts of faith to draw upon it and to use it. Thus it will become to each of us as much a truth of experience as it was to St. Paul, and no vague language of metaphor, that “I no longer live, but Christ lives in me” [Galatians 2:20 NIV].

About the author and the source

Charles Gore (1853–1932) was an influential Anglican theologian and bishop, founder of the Community of the Resurrection as well as co-founder of the Christian Social Union. Mary Wilder Tileston (19th century) included this selection in a devotional collection.

“October 17” in Joy and Strength for the Pilgrim’s Day, edited by Mary Wilder Tileston. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1901.

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