Desire 457
The practical cross which God dispenses runs counter to our
desires. The cross aims at crucifying them. Nothing in our total
make-up suffers more wounding under the lash of the cross than does
our emotion. It cuts deeply into everything pertaining to ourselves.
How then can our emotion be happy when our desire is dying? The
redemption of God requires a thorough setting aside of the old
creation. God’s will and our soul’s delight are incompatible. For
anyone to pursue the Lord he must oppose his own desire.
Since this is God’s purpose He therefore arranges to have His
children experience many fiery trials so that all these offscourings of
desire may be consumed in the fire of suffering. A Christian may
aspire to high position, but the Lord brings him low: he may cherish
many hopes, yet the Lord allows him no success in anything: he may
entertain many delights, but the Lord gradually takes away each of
them till none remains: he yearns for glory, yet the Lord inflicts upon
him humiliation. Nothing in the ordering of the Lord seems to
coincide with the Christian’s thought; everything strikes him down as
would a beating rod. Though he struggles with all his might he soon
deduces that he is heading straight for death. He does not discern at
first that it is the Lord Who leads him to this demise. Everything
seems to speak of helplessness, seems to remove any hope of life,
seems to demand that he should die. During this period when he
cannot escape death, he begins to realize he owes this end to God,
and so he yields and accepts it with composure. This death, however,
bespeaks the cessation of his soul life that he may live utterly in God.
To achieve this death in the Christian’s life God has worked long and
hard. How foolish then for him to resist such an expiration for so
long. For is it not true that after he has passed through this death all
turns out well and God’s aim in him is also fulfilled? Thereafter he
can advance rapidly in spiritual growth.
Once he loses his heart for “self” the believer can be wholly
God’s. He is ready to be molded into any form God wishes. His
desire no longer strives against God; nay, he relishes nothing but