458 The Spiritual Man
God. His life has now become quite simple: he has no expectations,
no requests, no ambitions other than to be willingly obedient to the
Lord’s will. A life of obedience to His intent is the simplest kind on
earth, because he who so lives seeks nothing but to quietly follow
God.
After a person has forsaken his natural longings he obtains a
genuinely restful life. Formerly he had many desires. To satisfy them
he planned, plotted and contrived, exhausting every ounce of his
wisdom and power. His heart was in constant turmoil. While
contriving, he agitated to attain what he desired. When defeated, he
agonized because of failure to achieve. How the restful life eludes
him! Furthermore, the person who has not yet abandoned what is his
and surrendered to what is God’s cannot help but be affected by his
surroundings. People’s capricious attitudes, changing environments,
loneliness, and many other elements in the external world work to
induce melancholia. This is quite a common trait among emotional
saints. But natural desire can also arouse wrath in such a one. When
externals go against his wish or do not turn out exactly as he prefers,
when matters appear to be unjust and unreasonable to him, he
becomes disturbed, anxious, and angry. These different emotional
expressions are provoked by external causes. How easily one’s
emotion can be stirred, perturbed, and wounded. One’s natural desire
thus seeks out man’s love, respect, sympathy and intimacy; but if he
fails to realize his desire he murmurs against heaven and cries out
against men. Is there anyone exempt from such sorrow and grief?
Living in this bitter world as we all do, can anyone realistically
expect to have his desire fully realized? If this is impossible, then
how can an emotional believer ever secure rest in life? He cannot.
But that child of God who purely follows the spirit and seeks not his
own pleasure is satisfied with what God gives to him: and his
restlessness immediately ceases.
The Lord Jesus speaks to His disciples saying: “Take my yoke
upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and