OUR DAILY BREAD
Friday
June 28, 2013
Miserable Success
Read: Luke 9:18-27
If anyone desires to come
after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. —Luke
9:23
“In whatever a man does without God, he must fail
miserably—or succeed more miserably,”
wrote George MacDonald (1824-1905), a Scottish novelist, poet, and Christian
minister. This intriguing statement is often cited by modern speakers and
writers and appears in MacDonald’s book ‘Unspoken
Sermons. ’
MacDonald was dealing with
the difficult subject of a Christian’s self-denial and how
we are to apply this teaching of Jesus: “If anyone desires to
come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow
Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his
life for My sake will save it” (Luke 9:23-24).
Rather than merely trying to
suppress our natural desires, MacDonald said that true self-denial means “we
must see things as [Christ] saw them, regard them as He regarded them; we must
take the will of God as the very life of our being . . . . We are no more to
think, ‘What should I like to do?’
but ‘What would the Living One have me do?’”
Getting only what we want is
succeeding miserably. True success is found in “losing”
our lives for Jesus’ sake and finding them again full and free in His
will. —David McCasland
More like the Master I would
live and grow,
More of His love to others I
would show;
More self-denial, like His in
Galilee,
More like the Master I long
to ever be. —Gabriel
The spirit of humility and
self-denial precedes a deeper and closer walk with God.
Goodmorning
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