'How often we love
Him not because of Himself but because of ourselves.
We love, for in
loving God we experience a kind of joy in our hearts. This sharply reveals that
we do not actually love Him; what we love is only joy, even if that is the joy
of God.
This indicates that
we esteem God’s gift higher than God the Giver!
It also proves we
continue to walk by our soul life and do not appreciate what a true spiritual
life is. We deify joyous feeling and incorrectly regard it as pleasurable.
To cure His children
of this mistake God withdraws the joyous feeling as He wills and topples them
into suffering that they may know that pleasure is in Himself, not in His joy.
If they verily make God their joy they will
uplift Him and love Him even in the hour of suffering; if not, they will sink
into darkness.
God, in so
undertaking, aims not to destroy our spiritual life but purposes to destroy all
idols we worship other than Himself.'
The Spiritual Man-
By Watchman Nee
*******
Have you ever been
accused of 'using' someone to get what you want? What about the term- fair
weather friend, do you know that saying? Maybe you haven't been accused of
using anyone, and that's a great thing. Have you ever had a fair weather
friend? Someone who is only your friend when you benefit them? These types of
people aren't those we want to call friends. No one wants a friend who is only
friendly when they need something you can give them. A person wants a friend in
good times and in bad times, because life is filled with both.
People who love the
joyous feeling of knowing God have to love God when they are in agony-
spiritual, physical, mental agony. Why? Because God isn't a genie in a bottle!
God isn't our God because He grants us wishes. God isn't our God because He
keeps us from agonies.
He didn't keep His
Son from agony.
Luk 22:41 And
he was withdrawn from them about a stone's cast, and kneeled down, and
prayed,
Luk 22:42
Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not
my will, but thine, be done.
Luk 22:43 And
there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him.
Luk 22:44 And
being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great
drops of blood falling down to the ground.
It isn't wrong to
love the joy of God, but as Watchman Nee talks about, it is wrong to have that
love of joy rule our relationship with God. If we wake up in the morning
anticipating the joy only to find one morning we don't feel that joy we will
instantly believe something is wrong. We count on that joy to gauge our
relationship with God and that just isn't a reliable gauge at all whatsoever.
We might NOT
understand the reasons in-depth as to why God allows us the horrific trials
that He does, but we have to have faith and believe that somehow, someway it's
for our good.
Rom_8:28 And
we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them
who are the called according to his purpose.
That doesn't say…
'And we know that SOME things work together for good…' It says, ALL things work together for good.
If we worship joy,
or any other emotion …if we worship our God based on the our having what people
have told us is a 'good life' then we aren't worshipping God at all, but a
false god we're glossed over and have convinced ourselves is true.
Please Father in
heaven, please we would know YOU in all our circumstances, in all aspects of
our lives. Please be REAL to us and teach us to walk in Your ways always!
All through Jesus
Christ our LORD, our Savior now and forever!
No comments:
Post a Comment