Expulsive Power

Check out what I read this morning:


Only by a stronger passion can evil passions be expelled, and .... a soul unoccupied by a positive devotion is sure to be occupied by spiritual demons.  The safety of the Master in the presence of temptation lay in his complete and positive devotion to his mission: there was no unoccupied room in his soul where evil could find a home; he knew what Dr. Chalmers called, "The expulsive Power of a new affection."  When Ulysses passed the Isle of Sirens, he had himself tied to the mast of and had his ears stopped with wax, that he might not hear the sirens singing - a picture of many man's pitiful attempts after negative goodness. But when Orpheus passed the Isle of Sirens, he sat on the deck, indifferent, for he too was a musician, and could make melody more beautiful than the sirens, that their alluring songs were to him discords.  Such is the Master's life of positive goodness, so full, so glad, so triumphant, that it conquered sin by surpassing it.  Have you such a saving positiveness of loyal devotion in your life?  (Harry Emerson Fosdick, The Manhood of the Master)

I think this "saving positiveness" is something we must ask for, but must also cultivate if we are to experience it.  Our heart becomes softer toward Him through the discipline of moving it close to His flame day by day.  This is why the probationary period that so many of us put ourselves into after a failure is so damaging - it is keeping us from the one thing that will ultimately conquer sin in our lives: a new affection.  We must run into the presence of God after we fall, not away from it.  He is not shocked by our weakness.  He knew what He was getting when He paid for us.