Others May -- You Cannot
If God has called you to be really like Jesus, He will draw you into a life of crucifixion and humility, and put upon you such demands of obedience, that you will not be able to measure yourself by other Christians; and in many ways, He will seem to let other good people do things which he will never let you do.
Other Christians and ministers, who seem very religious and useful, can push themselves, pull wires and work schemes to carry out their Christian goals, but these things you simply cannot do. Others may boast of their work or their writings or their success, but the Holy Spirit will not allow you to do any such thing, and if you ever try it, He will lead you into some deep mortification that will make you despise yourself and all your good works. Others may be allowed to succeed in making money, but most likely God will keep you poor, because He wants you to have something far better than gold, namely, a helpless dependence on Him and the joy of seeing Him supply your needs day by day out of an unseen Treasury.
The Lord may let others be honored and keep you hidden and unappreciated because he wants to produce some choice, fragrant fruit for His coming glory, which can only be produced in the shade. He may let others do a work for Him and get the credit for it, but He will make you work on and on without others knowing how much you are doing; and then, to make your work still more precious, He may let others get the credit for the work which you have done and thus make your reward ten times greater when Jesus comes.
The Holy Spirit will rebuke you for little words or deeds or even feelings, or for wasting your time, which other Christians never seem to be concerned about, but you must make up your mind that God iSes an infinite Sovereign and He has a right to do whatever He pleases with His own. He may not explain to you a thousand things which puzzle your reason in the way He deals with you, but if you will just submit yourself to Him in all things, He will wrap you up in a jealous love and bestow upon you many blessings which come only to those who are very near to His heart.
Settle it then, that He is to have the privilege of tying your tongue, or chaining your hand, or closing your eyes, in ways that He does not seem to use with others. Now, when you are so possessed with the living God that your secret heart becomes pleased and delighted with this peculiar, personal, private, jealous guardianship and managment of the Holy Spirit over your life, then you will have entered the very vestibule of heaven itself.
-G.D. Watson (1845-1924)
Also at the suggestion of a blogger friend, I have been listening to some wonderful broadcasts from Eric Ludy. At this site you can sign up for devotionals from Eric and Leslie and download audio from Eric's sermons and seminary speeches. This week we've listened to "21 Father Truths" and "Zerubbabel" and God has used these teachings in my life.
13 comments:
Beautiful! I love this line, "Settle it then, that He is to have the privilege of tying your tongue, or chaining your hand, or closing your eyes, in ways that He does not seem to use with others." . . . I think I too often compare myself with other Christians and wonder why I don't have blessing x, y, or z like they do. This man's words give the answer in such an inspiring way. So glad you shared, Julia!
WOW, Julia, this is so powerful, so timely, and exactly what I needed to hear! Thank you so very much for sharing this, my friend! I just read it to my parents and they thought it was amazing, too! And, I love your title- “Teachings That Convict and Bless…” I think conviction is a blessing, Amen? The two certainly go hand in hand :)
And, I agree with Renee Ann’s comment- love that incredible line she quoted from this, and I, too, struggle with the same thoughts of comparing. As I was reading “Crazy Love” yesterday (almost done with it and should hopefully have a review up this weekend!) the author, Francis Chan, quoted William Wilberforce: “Prosperity hardens the heart.” Such true words. Prosperity (in any area) takes our eyes off the Lord as the provider of our needs and fixes them on ourselves as our own provider; makes our heart seek its own instead of the Lord for its every beat. There is only ONE Jehovah Jireh, and we’re not Him. A “helpless dependence”- that is what the Lord wants from us.
And, I’m SO happy you’ve been blessedly convicted by those Ludy’s ;) I’ve been blessedly convicted by them since I was 16 and still continue to be! Did you watch Eric’s “Intercession” video on their Ellerslie homepage? And, if you go to their youtube page http://www.youtube.com/user/setapartlife check out the video titled “The Spirit is Willing” it’s awesome- of course, all the others are great, too ;) Oh, and if you haven’t had a chance to listen to Eric’s Moody Podcast’s I highly recommend them! I really like the one titled “Anointing” – if you click on “about Eric & Leslie” scroll down to Eric and click on “Moody Radio Podcast” you’ll find them there. They are both wonderful examples with incredible testimonies and I pray the Lord will continue to bless their ministry.
Julia, thank you again! Praying you have a beautiful weekend!!
Blessings,
Amanda Stanley
@ Renee, I love that part, too. I think we all struggle with that competitive nature, at least I do. I'm so glad you were blessed by this :)
Amanda,
I'm so glad that you and your parents were both blessed by it!
So true that conviction is a blessing, though sometimes I need to remind my feelings :). Thank goodness our faith isn't based on our feelings though.
Love the William Wilberforce quote! So true! That is so what I need a sense of total helplessness before my Father. May it be so always!
I haven't seen the videos, but definitely will! Right now we're listening to "Immovable."
Julia! How fun was that tonight?! I am so glad I got to meet you. We'll have to get together again sometime. :)
Hey, Julia--just saw a picture of you on the Seekerville blog with Joy and Ruthy! Fun! Had you met any of those ladies before or only in cyberspace? . . . And it looks like that's a great bookstore . . .
@Joy, Yes I'm so glad we were able to get together! And you made it home at a decent hour looks like.
@Renee Ann, My you are a late night gal! Thanks! We did have fun. I had met Deb before.
I think I found the Lamplighters site. It has beautiful old books like The Lamplighter, Ishmael, and Helen's Temper and Its Consequences . . . Anyway I love the site that I found and requested a catalog. Thanks for sharing the info!
And I have to add this, I just looked up a book I saw on the Lamplighters site, The Lamplighter by Maria S. Cummins, and bought a Kindle download at Amazon for $.99. Fun!
Beautiful words, Julia! I like your deep thinking/devotional posts so much. I'm learning the lessons above so well with my writing. I want to get to the place where I don't struggle about where I am in life at any level but just rest in Him. I love the verse, "I am not worthy of the least of all Thy mercies." Genesis 32:10 That's so good for keeping perspective. Bless you and everyone here.
Renee Ann,
I'm glad you enjoyed the site. I hope to read many of these to Elizabeth as she gets older. I'll have to check out The Lamplighter.
Laura,
Amen to the verse you shared. One I really need to keep in mind. That is so much where I want to be, too. I hadn't heard of G.D. Watson, but as with many of the old devotionals you can read them free online. I was really blessed by them. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving :)
you have no idea how much i relate to this post! Yes, learning to be patient and work on His time and not mine...a big lesson for me! as well as trusting in the bigger plan, but its so nice to know there is one! So glad to hear your homeschooling endeavors have been going well!~
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