“For thus the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, has said, ‘In repentance and rest you will be saved, in quietness and trust is your strength.’ But you were not willing . . .” (Isaiah 30:15). “ . . . ‘Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind and makes flesh his strength, and whose heart turns away from the LORD. For he will be like a bush in the desert and will not see when prosperity comes, but will live in stony wastes in the wilderness, a land of salt without inhabitant’” (Jeremiah 17:5-6).

Monday, Thursday, and Friday morning prayer, Tuesday night prayer, and Friday night prayer, and daily we work and pray to see the lost multitudes of Asia reached. But the trap in my life is to be doing the work of God, wholehearted, and yet I miss God Himself. I can easily pray for the Dalits of India in all their depravity and be strong and bold in my words, why I’ve done it 100 times the past month, yet not do it in His strength. We can lead a Bible study, or children’s lesson, and the kids behave and the lesson was composed and we spoke clearly. But in all that fine glorious business could have MISSED GOD HIMSELF!

Jesus did not look to lead the masses of crowds to Himself but looked for individuals. He would say turn away from your selfish and evil ways, take up your cross and follow me. Jesus all to well knew and saw those people who wanted some part of Him because His ministry was attractive and had a good reputation. As Keith Green put it, Americans are the people who always pray, “Bless me, bless me,” and let the culture dictate what is righteous and “how much” God you can have. Jesus said, “ . . . unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit” (John 12:24). Paul said he pressed on, leaving EVERYTHING behind, his successes and failures.

I must reject any notion that I have anything to offer God. God said if we repent and rest in Him we will be saved. It is so simple. He said our strength would be our quietness and trust in Him. I don’t want to be sacrificing my life for the lost but come to Heaven and find it was all fruitless work done in my own flesh. K.P. Yohannan challenged us the other night, “When was the last time you spent an hour on your face before God in quietness?” If we are just running around being busy outside the strength and rest of Christ then Satan is just waiting for the time he will yank the rug out on us (Daniel 7:25). “Self-centered Christians cannot and will not respond to Christ because they are not submitted to Him as their head” (Road to Reality, p30). I must let my self-centeredness die and realize that our strengths and weakness are not what decide what God can do in my life.

Application for me:

• Stop running here and there for a solution that only requires quieting ourselves and waiting in prayer. SEEK GOD FIRST.
• Stop feeding ourselves with unspiritual things (Things that may take my time away from the Lord). Isaiah 30:15.
• Work to discipline the flesh. It isn’t by trying to be more spiritual to win over the flesh but by constantly praying and seeking God to change and convert the flesh.