Search
How anxious I am today! Seemingly, I have lost something! I surely would like to leave this place to meet with some saints to soothe my loneliness. A day like this is hard to endure! To be here confined alone is really not easy!
This is an occasional activity of the soul. It is the provoking of the soul.
O Lord, I dare not move one step; for I know that Your Spirit works in my heart to divide my soul from my spirit, so that my spirit can ascend to heaven and so that I can be one spirit with the Spirit of the Lord Jesus, and not be affected by the provocation of my soul.
How unbearable, truly unbearable! If I can endure this unbearableness and not try to escape from the route that the Lord has chosen for me, the soul will lose its power of influence.
May the Lord cause me to be calm. (January 2)
When the Lord, who is worthy of our praises forever, was on the earth, He told us, "Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall by no means thirst forever" (John 4:14). This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation, for what the Lord bestowed upon us can satisfy us forever. The Lord knows the nature of His own gift.
But what a pity that many times in our experiences we are not like this! Many times we are thirsty again! Do we not have this sense of dryness often? We often feel dissatisfied and even feel the presence of much need.
However, the word of our beloved Lord will never return void. Whatever He says is true.
The problem is on our side, because we do not believe! If we believe His word, we will surely not thirst again. The living water He promised will constantly supply our parched soul and spirit, and it will satisfy all our desires. The more we believe the Lord's promise, the more the life will "flow."
Oh, how disgusting is this evil heart of unbelief! May the Lord give us grace that we may believe in Him and rest in Him.
Blessed are those who know that the Lord can satisfy our heart! Blessed are those who have no thirst other than the thirst for the Lord!
We have only one resting place and that is our Lord — "Rest in the Lord." If we rest in our environment, knowledge, perception, health, or spiritual experience, we will find that they will change and will fail. They are shaky foundations. Thank the Lord that He is our resting place. Although we cannot rest on anything else, we can rest in Him. He is our high tower with a firm foundation.
Because of His great love, we rest in Him. He loves us. This love is "eternal" and "unto the end." This love caused our Lord Jesus Christ to come down from heaven to die for us on the cross, to resurrect and ascend, to intercede for us, and to prepare a place for us, and it will cause Him to come again. How marvelous this love is! The human tongue and reasonings fail to depict this love of the Lord. Since we have such a loving God, why is it we cannot stop worrying and simply rest in Him? Nothing that comes along should make us anxious or worried. We should calm down and rest. Why? Because God loves us.
Furthermore, we rest in Him because of His wisdom. His wisdom will not let Him miscalculate. He knows how to arrange and how to proceed. Everything that comes to us has gone through His wise consideration. He knows how to cause all things to work together for good to those who love God. Although we may think that we are in despair and have no way to go on, and although our hearts are troubled, yet He is not like us. He knows how to uphold the whole universe, and He also knows how to arrange the smallest things for us. So why do we worry? Does He not have wisdom?
Moreover, we rest in Him because of His mighty power. His arm will never fail, and the greatness of His power is inconceivable. Whatever things He knows that He should do, He is able also to accomplish them. He is able to save His children. He is able to destroy Satan's work. He is forever victorious. It is this power that is working for us! Therefore, trembling and feeble brothers, we can be bold. Recline and rest in the Lord, because this mighty Lord is our Father.
May the Lord give us rest and free us from anxiety in times of difficulty through looking up to Him. May we believe His love, wisdom, and power, and may we not cause any useless confusion.
To exalt oneself is to put one's self in an improper place. This is a danger to the young believers and a trap to the older saints. Only after the cross has done its thorough work in a person's heart can he refrain from expressing himself. Only then will a person allow others to receive the glory and remain silent himself as a sword in God's scabbard. The life of a Christian must not for a moment be separated from the cross. The Holy Spirit of God works through the cross to expose our fallen and corrupt nature. After such discipline from God, the saints will know by experience their own miserable state. Thereafter, they not only will avoid expressing themselves, but will consider it a shameful thing to do so, for God has shown them their true condition through their experience. The more a person knows his own condition, the less he will express himself. But the pity is that we do not know ourselves! We ought to see light in God's light. There are varying degrees of self-exaltation. Some blow the horn before men, whereas others may just have a little self-appreciation. Nevertheless, the eagerness of the self within is the same. Some self-exaltation comes from pride — esteeming oneself above others. Some self-exaltation comes from jealousy — elevating oneself to be equal with others. These are all works of the flesh. Even though some motives may be better than these, they are still liable to put a person in danger.
To worship the creature instead of giving glory to the Creator seems to be man's peculiar sin. If the Lord gives us honor and glory, it is already hard to avoid hero-worship from others; how much more if a person purposely exalts himself to attract people's attention? Besides its effects on others, his own spiritual desolation can definitely be foretold.
Although superficially such ones have a certain amount of success, in the spiritual battle they have already lost their ground. Oh, how numerous are the newsletters and reports today! May the Lord restrain me from judging people. Few of those reports direct people to give glory to God! Oh, amidst the words of praises to God, there are so many words of praises to men — even praises to themselves! Alas, many times our heart desires people to glorify God, and us as well!
In many works God is pushed to the back, and we wonder who is really the master. At any rate, there is no reason whatsoever to justify a person's praising himself.
Was I not the same when I was a babe in Christ? How happy I felt when I received praises and recognition from people!
May the Lord cause us to know ourselves and to learn to be a quiet and hidden person.
The goal of the Lord Jesus Christ is that we be perfect. He wants to "sanctify her, cleansing her [His church] by the washing of the water in the word, that He might present the church to Himself glorious, not having spot or wrinkle or any such things, but that she would be holy and without blemish" (Eph. 5:26-27). This is the Lord's expectation and ordination.
But we have fallen far short of this!
Indeed, we are pursuing daily, but how far are we from this mark? The Lord Christ wants us to be perfect, and so does the world. If we are not perfect, we cannot please Christ, and neither can we attract the souls of the world. Of course, compared with the time when we were newly saved, we have made some progress, even significant progress. But, are there not many minor blemishes and spots in our disposition and behavior? "Dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking savor" (Eccl. 10:1). How numerous are the dead flies! Often we say of some, "He does love the Lord, but his temper is a little on the bad side. She is really zealous, but she is a bit proud." It is so easy to see dead flies in others' ointment!
Yet we should know that in our own daily living there are so many kinds of dead flies. May the Lord open our eyes to see them all! Sometimes we save people and render help to them, and our hearts are filled with the Lord's love. But after a while, when we are stirred up, we become anxious! Sometimes the Lord uses us to save some people and help them, but in the very next moment we turn around and give the glory to ourselves. Sometimes we are zealous to work, ready to suffer for the Lord, and even to die for Him. But when we return home and find that our loved ones do not appreciate our labor and do not care about our fatigue, we ignite the fire of hell again! Sometimes we make up our mind not to mention others' shortcomings, but we tell others, saying, "I tell you this so that you can pray for him." Sometimes through the teaching of the Lord we develop a love for all the brothers, but we still cannot avoid treating some coldly and thinking that we have to "separate ourselves from them"! Alas, there are countless numbers of dead flies in the daily walk of the saints!
Those who pursue holiness wholeheartedly will understand this.
Satan — Beelzebul, which means the king of flies — always puts flies in our daily living to cause failure amidst our success and to put in flaws that mar perfection. We should confess the sins of our failure before the Lord and ask Him to wash us always with the water of the word. But this is painful, and our flesh is not willing! We should resist Satan and recover the ground we lost to him, so that we would not be unconsciously contaminated by his filth.
Brothers, let us by the grace of the Lord get rid of the little foxes (S.S. 2:15), the little leaven (1 Cor. 5:6), and the little folly (Eccl. 10:1) so that we can be perfect as our Father is perfect.
"Then Mordecai commanded to answer Esther, Think not with thyself that thou shalt escape in the king's house, more than all the Jews. For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place...and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?" (Esth. 4:13-14). I am greatly reminded whenever I read these verses that at that time Esther's brothers, the Jews, were in an extremely dangerous situation. They were soon to be annihilated by their enemy. Besides Esther, probably no one else could have saved them. Here, Mordecai's warning to her was really God's advice to those who have the ability to help their brothers. To save the Jews is God's purpose. God has ordained that His people be saved. He could not bear to see His people suffer. God respected Esther and desired to use her as an instrument to help save the Jews. If Esther failed God, then God would have to select another vessel to save His people. Esther then would lose the glory of assisting God and the joy of helping her people. Because the Jews must get "enlargement and deliverance...from another place."
At present among God's children there are many in need. They have many needs not only in spiritual things but also in material things. Many servants and handmaids of the Lord are willing to give up everything to go out and preach for the sake of the Lord and to take nothing from the Gentiles (3 John 7). They are indeed poor materially. For the need of His children, God "will fill your every need" (Phil. 4:19), because He will not put to shame those who rely on Him. This is God's ordination and His purpose.
At present He is choosing the vessels for His work, the channels for the river to flow through.
God respects you and grants you the glory of assisting Him. We should realize that to give to God's children is not to our loss. To "give" is not to "lose," and to "donate" is not to "diminish." When you give alms, there is nothing to boast of. On the contrary, it is your glory that God would esteem you, honor you, and use you. May we not belittle such glory. "Then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place." If you fail the Lord by shirking from what He wants you to do, do you think that the Lord has no other way? Indeed, He still has "another place." Of necessity He will search for others, but you will lose your opportunity to show your allegiance to the King! You will be belittling God's esteem and disregarding God's good intention in honoring you! Thus, you will fail God, and God will be delayed in His purpose for man. However, with Him is the source of riches. Originally He intended to honor men by allowing them to participate in His miracles and in His work. If they all fail, will He not rain manna from heaven or dispatch ravens again? Nevertheless, He will always have His "another place." The pity, of course, will be that we will lose the joy and the glory of co-working with Him. All those who have intimate fellowship with the Lord know the value of co-working with God. Those who make the Lord's heart their heart know the misery of disappointing the Lord. If the Lord will use His word to divide our soul from our spirit and will give us the experience of ascension, we will know how to sympathize with Him and how to take His interest as our interest. In such a case, we will certainly not be so indifferent toward the work of God's other children on earth.
Finally we should remember, "Who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?" The Lord allows you to have a surplus today in order that you may give today.
