Live by the Moment

A. B. Simpson was an author, hymn writer, conference speaker, evangelist to the urban masses of New York City, and a missionary statesman.  He founded The Christian and Missionary Alliance and Nyack College.

The following is from his book Wholly Sanctified:

"If we desire to be preserved blameless we must not live by long intervals, but by the breath and by the moment.

"Each instant must be dedicated and presented to God, a ceaseless sacrifice, and each breath must be poured into His bosom and received back from His being.

"If we desire to be preserved blameless we must learn to recover instantly from failure by frank confession and prompt faith and re-committal.

"It is possible to catch ourselves before we have really fallen, and God does not count it a fall if we do not yield to it. Unseen hands are ever near to bear us up. even when we dash our foot against a stone; the remedy is found even before the danger has become effectual.

"There is provision for every failure in the blessed promise, 'If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.'

"There is something higher and better than this, namely, the grace that is able to keep us from stumbling, and check us even before the fall is accomplished. So He is willing to keep us even as the apple of the eye, reminded of the danger before it has become fatal, and instinctively closing the eyelids against its intrusion.

"Finally, let us remember that the whole spirit, soul and body must be trained to abide in Christ. The life He gives us is not a self-contained endowment but a link of dependence [italics mine], and every part of our being must continually draw its replenishment and nurture from our living Head, and thus be preserved blameless unto the Coming of our Lord JESUS CHRIST."