Thursday: The Seven Road Blocks
WEEK 3
THURSDAY
THE SEVEN ROAD BLOCKS
Matthew 17:14-20
To the five things showing the disciples had not entered into their inheritance—the Holy Spirit—we must add two more.
They were still held by pre-Christian notions: “Lord, are you going to restore the kingdom to Israel now?” (Acts 1:6). They were spiritually dull. They kept trying to jam his universal kingdom into their own narrow, nationalistic molds. They were a spiritual disappointment to him; his kingdom was too great for their small hearts.
Then they were still guided by outer events instead of inner spiritual illumination. “Lord, . . . show us clearly which one you have chosen from among these two. . . . When they cast lots” (Acts 1:24, 26). The seat of religion was still in the outward; it had not moved into them.
It was obvious from these seven things that these men who were to master the world were still mastered by the world. Things and circumstances and wrong attitudes were on top of them instead of their being on top. They were not yet spiritually fit to turn the world upside down, for a lot of things in them were wrong side up.
The first step in their mastery of the world around them and within them was that they should be mastered. But how? It must all be entirely voluntary. There must be no compulsion except love. They had given up a good deal to follow Jesus—fishing nets, boats, parents, home, occupation—everything except themselves. They had never really surrendered the center, the citadel. They gave the marginal things but not the center. The unsurrendered self was the central block keeping redemption from flooding them. Everything was ready except the receptacle, which was still in their hands, not God’s. Their inmost selves had not been surrendered. So for ten days they waited in prayer in an upper room, asking God for something God was aching to give if only they would let the last barrier down. It took them ten days to get to the end of themselves. And at the end of themselves was the beginning of God. God took over when they turned over themselves. They offered their all, and that cleared the way for God’s all. God can give marginal blessings, but God can’t give the divine self—the Holy Spirit—until we give ourselves unconditionally and absolutely.
O Lord, help me not to stop this side of giving that last thing, myself; for I want and must have the Holy Spirit. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: The big road block is my unsurrendered self; that goes and goes today.