Sweetly Broken

MONDAY, JUNE 1, 2009

OTHERS MAY, YOU CANNOT

If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes

to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.

(Matthew 16:24-25)

If God has called you to be truly like Jesus in all your spirit, He will draw you into a life of crucifixion and humility. He

will put on you such demands of obedience that you will not be allowed to follow other Christians. In many ways, He

seems to let other good people do things which He will not let you do.

Others who seem to be very religious and useful may push themselves, pull wires, and scheme to carry out their

plans, but you cannot. If you attempt it, you will meet with such failure and rebuke from the Lord as to make you

sorely penitent.

Others can brag about themselves, their work, their successes, their writings, but the Holy Spirit will not allow

you to do any such thing. If you begin to do so, He will lead you into some deep mortification that will make you

despise yourself and all your good works.

Others will be allowed to succeed in making great sums of money, or having a legacy left to them, or in having

luxuries, but God may supply you only on a day-to-day basis, because He wants you to have something far better

than gold, a helpless dependence on Him and His unseen treasury.

The Lord may let others be honored and put forward while keeping you hidden in obscurity because He wants to

produce some choice, fragrant fruit for His coming glory, which can only be produced in the shade.

God may let others be great, but keep you small. He will let others do a work for Him and get the credit, but He will

make you work and toil without knowing how much you are doing. Then, to make your work still more precious, He will

let others get the credit for the work which you have done; this to teach you the message of the Cross, humility, and

something of the value of being cloaked with His nature.

The Holy Spirit will put a strict watch on you, and with a jealous love rebuke you for careless words and feelings, or

for wasting your time, which other Christians never seem distressed over.

So make up your mind that God is an infinite Sovereign and has a right to do as He pleases with His own, and that

He may not explain to you a thousand things which may puzzle your reason in His dealings with you.

God will take you at your word. If you absolutely sell yourself to be His slave, He will wrap you up in a jealous

love and let other people say and do many things that you cannot. Settle it forever; you are to deal directly with the

Holy Spirit, He is to have the privilege of tying your tongue or chaining your hand or closing your eyes in ways which

others are not dealt with. However, know this great secret of the Kingdom: When you are so completely possessed

with the Living God that you are, in your secret heart, pleased and delighted over this peculiar, personal, private,

jealous guardianship and management of the Holy Spirit over your life, you will have found the vestibule of heaven,

the high calling of God. --By G.D. Watson

This is so hard. Maybe one of the harder things have had to go through in my life. God's in the process of breaking me and asking me to give up things I don't want to let go of. It's so hard. I'm trying my very best and it truly painful but this is where I'm at in my walk with God. I realize that God's called me to higher standards and larger responsibilities and I'm starting to realize what that means. However, I know that it's already worth it. I've already seen the benefits of my disciplines and I know that this pruning and sifting will produce priceless treasures. It doesn't make it easier, but it does make it worth it. I'm trying not to think on what I'm losing but rather on what I'm gaining. I want that jealous guardianship over my life, I don't want to settle for anything less. And so it begins...

"God, this is so hard. It hurts. It's not fun and I don't like it. But God, you're so worth it. How can I not give myself up when you're everything I've ever wanted and everything I'll ever need? I'm asking you for strength and wisdom for this time. I know you're here with me, so I have nothing to fear. With you, all things are possible. So I'm choosing to die to myself because the life that I have in you is far greater and deeper.

I'm all yours."

Sweetly Broken,

Bri