Amid spiritual strife and assaults there are also many experiences of God's help and nearness. Spiritual strife and assaults are usually accompanied by much prayer and wrestlings at the throne of grace. There are times of spiritual strife and assaults, but that is not the same as failing of the grace of God, or backsliding. God's children know in their life a spiritual "winter time," when they see no growth and no fruit. We read that in Hebrews 12:14: "Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord." That communion with Christ must be preserved and protected in a life of sanctification. It is the life of grace by and with Christ Jesus. That is the life of faith with the Lord through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. In Psalm 84 the poet sings: From strength to strength Thy children dear Go forward, till they all appear In Zion's courts.
"Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God." It is God's promise in Psalm 92: "The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree: he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. It is the charge and the will of the Lord that they grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
It is the nature of those regenerated to grow and to bear fruit. Let us read Hebrews 12:15 again: "Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God" When we bring these things in relation to the grace of God, this admonition has an especially serious character. It can mean to not succeed, to stop short of, to be unsuccessful, to miss the mark, to fall short of, to come to nothing, to abort, to fall through, to turn out badly, to miscarry, to founder, to be defeated, to run aground, to collapse, to meet with disaster, to be in vain, to prove of no use, to end in smoke, to be stillborn. I was amazed at the deep meaning of the word "fail." We read in Hebrews 4:1: "Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into His rest, any of you should seem to come short of it " – that is, not attain the expected purpose. Literally, fail means "to be missed somewhere." We read in Hebrews 12:15, "Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God." What must we understand by that clause?
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