From “Intimate Letters on Personal Problems”
by J.R. Miller, 1914
Nothing can make one more weak, or put one more in peril at every point — than the lack of self-control. These runaway tongues of ours, are worse than wild horses when they get started!
There is one little sentence, however, in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews which gives the secret of Moses’ victory over himself, that “he endured as seeing Him who is invisible!” Hebrews 11:27. That is, Moses always remembered that God was right beside him, his friend to help him — and this made him strong. He did not actually see God — but it was as if he saw Him. That is, he realized the divine presence in all his life, and learned his lessons under this blessed influence.
If you saw Christ standing beside you all the time, it would not be hard for you to keep sweet, to keep control of temper and speech. Well, Christ IS beside you — just as really as he was beside Mary when she sat at his feet in Bethany, or beside Peter and the other disciples as they walked together over the hills of Judea and Galilee. What you need, is to realize this fact. We know that God is present with us all the time, at every moment, by day or by night. He is closer than any human friend can be to us. Indeed, we are to practice His presence — that is, we are to live all the time, as if we actually saw Him!