Week 16 Sunday
Week 16 Sunday
Your Possibilities in God
Matthew 9:29; 17:20; Mark 11:22, 24; Romans 14:23
We left off last week by suggesting that we are to discipline our expectations to our possibilities. To “hitch your wagon to a star” is good, provided that, in following that star, you keep to the roads of open possibilities; otherwise you may find yourself in a swamp of discouragement and disillusionment. But having said that, we come now to the sixth step: gauge your possibilities, not in yourself, but according to what you can be in God. That leaves you with a disciplined, but ever-expanding, possibility; for possibilities in God are infinite. All this is not you, but you plus God.
Hannah sang this prayer: “My heart thrills to the Eternal, my powers are heightened by my God” (1 Sam. 2:1 Moffatt). Our powers are heightened by our God. True, they are our powers, still subject to limitations and not supposed to do the work of someone else, but they are heightened, provided they are surrendered to God and to God’s purposes. And then anything may happen—yes, anything.
Dr. Ray Allen translates into rigorous but true language the passage where the father of the boy with seizures pleads for Jesus’ help. The father says, “If you can do anything, help us.” Jesus replied, “ ‘If you can’—everything is ‘can’ to those who believe.”* People of faith have thrown out “can’t” and put in “can.”
Across the hall from where I am writing once lay a hopelessly disabled woman, living in a darkened room. In that darkened room, faith worked through love; “The Little Sister”—for so they affectionately called her—set up a home for the disabled in China on the site of a pond into which people used to throw disabled children. Her faith inspired others; money came in and was sent through her loving hands on its healing mission. Everything is “can” to those who believe.
“My religion,” said Lao-Tzu, “is to think the unthinkable thought, to speak the ineffable word, to do the impossible deed and to walk the impossible way.”**
O God, in you I cannot be defeated nor fail, for I am now under a living mind and a living will, and the future is open. I haven’t much to offer, but what I have is yours. Heighten these powers, so that I shall be a continuous surprise, even to myself. Amen.
* That Wonderful Man (Hornell, N.Y.: W. H. Greenhow Co., 1929). The quotation is most likely from this translation of the Gospel of Mark by Ray Allen.
** Published source unknown.
Week 16 Monday
Doing What You Can’t!
Hebrews 11:8-12, 33-40; 12:1-3
Yesterday, we saw how a darkened room, filled with physical agony, brought light to hundreds across the seas. Everything is “can” to those who believe. And it was all so human and so divine.
William V. Kelley spoke at this woman’s funeral of “the miracle of her healthy mind.” It was a healthy mind because a harnessed mind; it was disciplined to the possible, and yet how utterly impossible! Her faith had its feet upon the ground; but sometimes faith walked so fast that those feet seemed to leave the earth. No wonder Dr. Kelley dedicated his book: “To one who, through years of suffering, bears an illumined face.”* A disabled body, a healthy mind, an illumined face, a home for the disabled—why? In and through it all, God worked as she worked.
Someone has put it this way: “It is good to work; it is better still that our work should lead us to let God work.” My work then will be to let God work! That is what Jesus meant when he said—in answer to the question, “What must we do to perform the works of God?”—“This is the work of God, to believe” (John 6:28-29 Moffatt). When I am believing, then I am really working, for I become a channel of the Infinite.
One day in Washington, as we waited on God in a small group to see what next step we could take to help bring peace between Japan and America, I told them that I had a very difficult assignment that day. I was to see someone I didn’t really want to see and yet it had to be done. A layman quoted this inscription on a tombstone: “She hath done what she couldn’t.” I went forth with those words ringing in my heart and kept saying to myself, “I’ll do what I can’t.” And I did!
When we are completely surrendered to God, we can do what we can’t—we find ourselves miracles to ourselves. “I like my poems best,” said Emerson, “because I did not write them.”** He felt that he had surrendered to a Power that wrote through him. So he was a surprise to himself.
O God, now I begin to see that the way of open possibilities lies before me. I adventure with you. For then nothing is too small, beneath our dignity to do; and nothing is too large, beyond our powers to do. I am following—lead on! Amen.
* The Illumined Face (New York: Eaton & Mains, 1911).
** Published source unkown.
Week 16 Tuesday
The Man Jesus Saw
Luke 19:1-9; John 1:42, 47-51
See yourself, not in what you are, but in what you are and can be in God. There were three persons in Matthew the publican: (1) the publican whom his associates saw; (2) the Matthew whom Matthew saw; (3) the Matthew whom Jesus saw. Each thought he saw the true Matthew. Who was right? The Matthew Jesus saw was the true Matthew, and so he turned out to be the Matthew of infinite possibilities. There are three people in you: the one your associates see—the outer you; the one you see—the present you; the one Jesus sees—the future you.
Everything depends on which “You” you center on. If you center on the “You” your associates see, you will be in bondage to what others think about you; you will look around before you act to see what effect your action will have on others. You won’t act; you will react. You will become an echo and not a voice, a thing and not a person.
If you center upon the “You” you know, then you will be discouraged. For who has not had some skeleton in the closet of life that makes the cheeks burn with shame and humiliation? If you are centered on this “You,” you will be caught in the bondage of inhibitions by what you have been and are.
But there is this third “You” that Jesus sees. What a “You” that is! It is a “You” surrendered to God, cooperating with God, taking divine resources, working out life together; a “You” loosed from what you’ve been and done, reinforced with divine energy and insight; a “You” that does things beyond your capacity, amazing both yourself and others; a “You” poised, progressive, and productive. That is the real “You.” Center on Christ’s “You,” and you will become it.
Jesus always looks on not what a person has been or is, but on what that person is going to be. And that is right. The artist looks not on what a stone has been or is, but on what the artist is going to bring out of it—the living figure. A group of radiant Christians have as their motto, “My adventure is God.” Good; and under your breath you can add, “My adventure is God, and the self I’m going to be in God.”
God—I’m adventuring in you! I’m pushing back my small horizons as I see yours. I’m sloughing off my littleness as I see your greatness. I’m leaving my outgrown self by life’s unresting sea. I’m exchanging “you” for your “You.” My bonds are bursting—and I come. Amen.
Week 16 Wednesday
Look Beyond Self to God
Romans 13:14; Galatians 5:16, 24-25; Ephesians 3:14-21
You must linger upon this thought of seeing yourself in God, for it needs correction, and that is the seventh step toward release: Don’t look too long at this self in God—look at God. A great many cults center on self-cultivation and leave behind a multitude of wistful, but frustrated people, lifted for a moment and limping for a lifetime. Why? You dare not center on yourself, for, if you do, as sure as fate you will lose yourself. “All who want to save their lives”—centering on their lives, loving them even for purposes of cultivating them—“will lose them” (Matt. 16:25 CEB).
As long as Peter looked at himself or the waves around him, he started sinking. Only as he looked at Jesus did he walk firmly on the waters (see Matt. 14:22-32). Look at yourself, or at others, and you will sink; look at Christ, and you can walk on anything. As someone has suggested: “Say to yourself, ‘salivate,’ and the probabilities are that no water will come into your mouth; on the contrary, it will probably dry up. But think of a savory dish, and without your saying anything the water will flow.” You must think, not of yourself—even to cultivate yourself; but think of Christ, and the self will be cultivated. Glance at yourself in God, but gaze at God.
This law of losing one’s life to find it runs through everything. Jesus said, “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow” (Matt. 6:28). How do they grow? By being self-conscious and fussily trying to grow and to look beautiful? No; they look at the sun, and in their sun-centeredness, they grow beautiful. Beauty cults and classes designed to teach one charm lose themselves, for they break upon this law of saving one’s life and losing it. The beauty cults end in painted dolls, and the charm classes lose their charm.
The only beautiful people are people who lose themselves in a great cause; they grow beautiful as they continually gaze at Beauty. The only charming people are people who charm you to great ends; and they themselves become charming as they lose themselves in you and in others: “The Little Sister of the illumined face,” and William Pennefather, to whom, as he walked the streets, a beggar cried, “You sir, with Heaven in your face!”*
O God, I dare not gaze on myself, even in you. But I do gaze on you and find myself. In you, I gaze and grow—in myself, I cultivate and deteriorate. So now my eye is getting in focus. I begin to understand what you meant: “If thine eye be single, your whole body shall be full of light” (Matt. 6:22 KJV). My whole body is full of light. Thank you, Lord. Amen.
*The Life and Letters of Rev. William Pennefather, B.A., ed. Rev. Robert Braithwaite (London: John F. Shaw and Co., 1931), 292.
Week 16 Thursday
A Problem-centered Gaze Is Unhealthy
Ephesians 1:17-23; Philippians 4:8-9
Just a word before we leave the point of looking at yourself, even in God. Whatever gets your attention gets you, and you must not be the center of attention, even when you are in God. Our faith is God-centered, not you-centered. So look away from your sins and diseases; look away from yourself—look away to God.
Look away from your sins and diseases. If your gaze is on sin and disease—is sin-centered and disease-centered—you’ll never get well. I asked some people in a sanitarium to sew and knit for those in need in China. As they had countless hours upon their hands, I thought they would crowd the lady whom I designated to take their names. Not a person gave a name. Then I saw what had happened: These people weren’t self-centered because they were sick; they were sick because they were self-centered. And they would never get well until they turned their attention from themselves to God and others.
Airplanes in France provide a cup in front of each passenger with a sign, “For airsickness.” In English planes, the notice reads, “In case you feel indisposed, the steward will help you.” In the English planes, scarcely anyone gets sick, but in the French planes, almost everyone does! Passengers look at the word sickness and the cup—enough! But when they read the sign in the English planes, they think of a steward; the attention is called off from self, the sickness is pushed to the margin.
In an airplane in America, we were riding a gale of eighty miles an hour, and over mountains; the air was churned up terribly. A lady opposite me reading a book on health yelled when the plane seemingly dropped out from under us, and she forthwith got sick. But I pictured myself as riding a bucking bronco, felt the exhilaration of the experience, and rode the bronco and the storm unscathed.
A prominent minister preached ten consecutive Sundays on “how to avoid a nervous breakdown,” and ended up with one. His psychology was bad; it was centered on a breakdown. It should have been centered on the Resources.
My Lord, God, I see where I should be centered—you are my center and my circumference. In you I am safe and steady and growing; in sickness and sin and myself, I wither. For I am fashioned in my inmost being for you—Homeland of my soul. I thank you. Amen.
Week 16 Friday
The Kingdom Belongs to You!
Matthew 5:1-10; Luke 18:16-17
We turn again from considering the problem-centered gaze to the Resources in our eighth step toward release: Remember that you do not merely belong to the kingdom of God; the kingdom of God belongs to you. Here is a fact that you must lay hold of, for in grasping it you turn the whole tide from defeat to victory. Possess this, and it will possess you.
Jesus said three classes possess the kingdom: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 5:3); “Let the children come to me, . . . for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven” (19:14); “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (5:10). Here the “poor in spirit,” “the little children,” and those who are sufficiently positive to be “persecuted” all possess the kingdom. The kingdom belongs to them; its powers are theirs.
The first two classes are alike: “the poor in spirit,” literally “the renounced in spirit,” and those who have the spirit of a little child—simple, unaffected, teachable. Here we find the key that unlocks the resources of the storehouse of the universe, the kingdom of God. The wealth of it is all “theirs.” This truth is applicable everywhere.
Thomas Huxley once wrote to Charles Kingsley:
Science seems to me to teach in the highest and strongest manner the great truth which is embodied in the Christian conception of entire surrender to the will of God. Sit down before fact as a little child, be prepared to give up every preconceived notion, follow humbly wherever and to whatever abysses nature leads, or you shall learn nothing. I have only begun to learn content and peace of mind since I have resolved at all risks to do this.*
How does the scientist gain mastery over nature? By surrendering to it! A scientist who is proud and unteachable will learn nothing, master nothing. Every great scientist is humble, has to be, or the scientist could not be great. He or she advances, as it were, upon the knee, then standing straight and masterful, with all the powers of nature are available. “The meek inherit the earth” (Matt. 5:5). So you—as you surrender to the kingdom of God—inherit its powers. They are all yours.
O God, it seems too good to be true—that all these powers are mine! Mine? I, who have been defeated and negative and afraid; can I dare take these powers of victory and release and usefulness? Then I do take, for I keep nothing back—absolutely nothing. And giving all, I take Jesus’ name. Amen.
* Thomas Huxley letter to Charles Kingsley, September 23, 1860. http://aleph0.clarku.edu/huxley/letters/60.html, accessed May 5, 2014.
Week 16 Saturday
The Kingdom Speaks When You Speak
Acts 4:13-20; 2 Corinthians 5:20; Ephesians 6:20
We must continue to pursue the thought that we do not merely belong to the kingdom; the kingdom belongs to us. This is so important that once you get hold of it all argument and hesitation and fear are at an end. You enter abundant living.
Ambassadors represent their countries; all the powers and privileges of their countries center in them. When they speak, their countries speak; when they decide, their countries decide, provided they are not speaking on their own, provided they are surrendered to the will of their countries, provided they have merged their interests in the interests of their countries. When entirely surrendered, they are entirely masterful, up to the limit of the resources of the countries represented.
If you have merged your interests in the kingdom of God, if you are entirely surrendered to it, if you speak representing, not yourself, but the kingdom; then all the powers of the kingdom center in you. A universe speaks when you speak; a universe acts when you act; a universe lives when you live. The resources of earthly kingdoms are so limited; the resources of the kingdom of God are so unlimited. That government that stretches from the lowest cell to the farthest star comes to focus in you; it is all yours!
Some high-school boys were discussing a certain Christian, and one of them said, “He’s got what it takes.” Yes, for he takes what he’s got! Had he been standing alone, he would not have “what it takes.” But taking from the kingdom, he could “take it” from life. He was invulnerable.
A little boy of five, son of a minister, said to me, “We preach down in Troy.” I loved that. When the father preached, the boy preached, and when the little boy preached by his life, the father preached. He accepted the corporate responsibility; he merged his interests in the father’s, and felt the corporate accomplishment.
You work with the Spirit of God, and the Holy Spirit is the Comforter, the Strengthener, or, to use a colloquial translation, “the Stand-by.”
O God, I merge my interests in the kingdom; I accept its responsibilities; and, and—dare I say it?—I inherit its powers! Help me be unafraid of being great—of being great in surrender, great in responsibility, great in resources, great in myself, because great in you. Amen.