Lord, help me to glorify you;
I am poor, help me to glorify you by contentment;
I am sick, help me to give you honor by patience;
I have talents, help me to extol you by spending them for you;
I have time, Lord, help me to redeem it, that I may serve you;
I have a heart to feel, Lord,
let that heart feel no love but yours,
and glow with no flame but affection for you;
I have a head to think,
Lord, help me to think of you and for you;
You have put me in this world for something, Lord,
show me what that is,
and help me to work out my life-purpose:
Godliness teaches us this mystery: Not to be satisfied with all the world for our portion, and yet to be content with the meanest condition in which we are.
When Luther was sent great gifts by Dukes and Princes, he refused them, and he says, “I did vehemently protest that God should not put me off so; ’tis not that which will content me.” A little in the world will content a Christian for his passage.
Mark, here lies the mystery of it: A little in the world will content a Christian for his passage, but all the world, and ten thousand times more, will not content a Christian for his portion. A carnal heart will be content with these things of the world for his portion; and that is the difference between a carnal heart and a gracious heart. But a gracious heart says, “Lord, do with me what You will for my passage through this world; I will be content with that, but I cannot be content with all the world for my portion.” So there is the mystery of true contentment. A contented man, though he is most contented with the least things in the world, yet he is the most dissatisfied man that lives in the world.
Well, the old theologians used to say that in the human heart, there’s a God-shaped vacuum that only God can satisfy. The book of Proverbs says if you pursue riches, riches will never satisfy. The heart of man is never ever satisfied in those things. However, being satisfied with God, then you can enjoy all the things that God gives you, because you see them as coming from His good hand. If you’re just pursuing riches, pursuing riches…you know, the old Rockefeller story, “You have so much,” somebody said to him, “how much do you want?” And he said, “Just a little bit more.” If that’s what you live for then you’re never going to be satisfied, and ultimately, that is not going to satisfy your heart. God alone, Christ alone, satisfies the heart and then everything you have, even the smallest things, becomes a cause for joy and thanksgiving.
My son, says our Savior Christ, you should speak thus in everything that you desire:
Lord, if it be Your will, be it done as I ask, and if it be to Your praise, let it be fulfilled in Your Name. And if you see that it is good and profitable to me, give me grace to use it to Your honor; if You know it to be hurtful to me, and not profitable to the health of my soul, then take away from me such desire.
Not every desire comes from the Holy Spirit, though it seem right and just. It is sometimes quite hard to judge whether a good or an evil spirit moves you to this or to that, or whether you are moved by your own spirit. Many are deceived in the end, who first appeared to have been moved by the Holy Spirit.
Therefore, with fear of God and with humility of heart, you should desire and ask whatever comes into your mind to be desired and asked. And with a complete forsaking of yourself, commit all things to God and say:
Diego grew up in the church and only by God’s Grace was saved in Christ alone at a older age. He was molested by a Catholic Priest when he was younger. He could of easily blamed God and denied the Lord because of the sins of a human sinner. Many people grow up in the hypocrisy of “religion” and then leave it and become atheists because of the hypocrisy. That will be no excuse in the end when you stand before God as Hebrews 9:27 shows.
You are either a child of God or of the devil, which one are you?
“Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. 9 No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. 10By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.” 1 John 3:8-11
The work of the Holy Spirit is to bring us to be experimentally nothing, and to make Jesus our “all in all,” thereby teaching us to live by faith upon Him.
Oh, may you, by the Spirit’s power, so lift up your eyes from all but Jesus, that you will be conformed to His image (2 Cor. 3:18). But do not expect to receive any better account of yourself—rather a worse one; for, as you get nearer the light, you will see more of your own sinfulness. I do hope, however, to hear you speak well of Him, and that, as you feelingly cry out, “Behold, I am vile!” He will melt your heart by responding, “You are absolutely beautiful, my darling, with no imperfection in you!”
Oh, this wondrous Savior! He opens the secret of our wanderings and transgressions—only to declare how entirely He has put them all away by the sacrifice of Himself! Oh, what mercy that He did not say, “Let them alone, they have loved idols, after idols let them go!” What mercy that by His light, He has manifested our darkness. You shall see greater things than these.
Godliness teaches us this mystery: Not to be satisfied with all the world for our portion, and yet to be content with the meanest condition in which we are.
