HOW OUR ASPIRATIONS ARE REALISED

^[p. 258] HOW OUR ASPIRATIONS ARE REALISED

If I am walking with my Lord as the treasure and resource of my heart, how can I have any large or valued possession down here? And more than this, I do not want it, for He is both my treasure and my resource. We often say, and I doubt not at times truly, that we enjoy Him as our treasure; and yet the moment part of our possession here is taken away from us, the poverty of our apprehension of our portion in Him is apparent.

God in His grace often takes us at our word - nay, I should say, at His word - when what we have expressed is the desire of His Spirit in our souls; and He says to us, as it were, ‘You said your treasure and resource were in my Son. Well, then be it so! surrender every other treasure and resource, and prove the great unbounded excellence of Him’. The blessed God only does this to make good the true desires of His Spirit in us.

I am afraid, and yet not afraid, when I hear anyone, even in prayer, expressing more than he has come up to; because I know if it be sincere, even in intention, God must put it to the test. The cross is not only to be taken up, but to be borne all the way through. It is well to cultivate and cherish high desires; but be assured the more genuine they are, the more the will must be broken, in order to make room for the manifestation of them in living power. The light that is in the earthen pitcher does not shine forth until the pitcher is broken.

May you and I submit to be broken, that the true happy desires, which we at times have loved to give expression to, may find no impediment to their full manifestation; and thus that the life of Jesus may be made manifest in our mortal flesh, to His praise and glory.