THE SACRAMENT OF THE SAINT
1
Peter 4:19 So
then, those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to
their faithful Creator and continue to do good.
To choose to
suffer means that there is something wrong. To choose God’s will even if it
means suffering is a very different thing. No healthy saint ever chooses
suffering; he chooses God’s will, as Jesus did, whether it means suffering or
not. No saint dare interfere with the discipline of suffering in another saint.
The
saint who satisfies the heart of Jesus will make other saints strong and mature
for God. The people who do us good are never those who sympathize with us, they
always hinder, because sympathy enervates. No one understands a saint but the
saint who is nearest to the Savior. If we accept the sympathy of a saint, the
reflex feeling is – Well, God is dealing hardly with me. That is why Jesus said
self-pity was of the devil (see Matt. 16:23). Be merciful to God’s reputation.
It is easy to blacken God’s character because God never answers back, He never
vindicates Himself. Beware of the thought that Jesus needed sympathy in His
earthly life; He refused sympathy from man because He knew far too wisely that
no one on earth understood what He was after. He took sympathy from His Father
only, and from the angels in heaven. (Cf. Luke 15:10)
Notice
God’s unutterable waste of saints, according to the judgment of the world. God
plants His saints in the most useless places. We say – God intends me to be
here because I am so useful. Jesus never estimated His life along the line of
the greatest use. God puts His saints where they will glorify Him, and we are
no judges at all of where that is.
My Utmost for His Highest, By Oswald Chambers. August
10.