Klara Schlink, religious leader and writer: born Darmstadt, Germany 21 October 1904; leader, Evangelical Sisterhood of Mary 1947-2001, taking the name Mother Basilea; died Darmstadt 21 March 2001.
Basiliea Schlink was the co-founder and spiritual leader for half a century of the Evangelical Sisterhood of Mary, a community dedicated to a Christian literature and radio ministry. She was herself a prolific writer, her devotional books, pamphlets and hymns being translated into more than 60 languages.
The Sisterhood of Mary, initially Lutheran but now interdenominational, numbers more than 200 women from 20 countries, with 14 men in the affiliated Canaan Franciscan Brothers. It has branched out from its centre in Germany, at Darmstadt near Frankfurt, to Australia, Israel and the United States, and has one community at Radlett in Hertfordshire. The Sisterhood publishes tracts in 90 languages and distributes them on all five continents, while its radio and television programmes are broadcast in 23 languages.
Perhaps Mother Basilea’s most noted contribution to religious life was her work for reconciliation between Germans and Jews. As a young woman she had learnt with horror of the Nazi extermination of the Jewish communities of her homeland and much of Europe, and dedicated her life to seeking forgiveness and overcoming the legacy of this mutual bitterness.
As national president of the Women’s Division of the German Student Christian Movement from 1933 to 1935, Schlink refused to comply with Nazi edicts barring Jewish Christians from meetings.
It was not until March 1947 that Schlink and Madauss were eventually able to fulfil their vision of establishing the Sisterhood.
In the other picture are we men, more or less wearing sparkling crowns of our own desire for attention and respect. We are much addicted to this desire. No matter what the price is we want to be the centre of attention. We make every effort to attain this goal and all other goals become secondary. The flagrant contrast between these two pictures shows us clearly how serious this sin is. It shows that our desire for attention flatly contradicts our divine calling to be remade in the image of Jesus.
The roots of this sin lie in Adam’s fall. Through the fall everything lost its proper relationship. No longer are we primarily interested in being respected by God, being at one with Him in love. Instead we have a strong drive, often a passionate yearning, to be respected and esteemed by people. If we sense that people whom we respect and whose opinion is important to us, do not respect us, we become sad, depressed, unhappy and touchy.
But that is not all. In our desire for recognition we often seek to get into the limelight and pretend to be something we are not, or to have abilities we do not possess. So we become untruthful and, without realizing it, hypocritical. We think we are serving God, but in reality we are doing everything for our own honour, so that others will respect us, and thus we sin against the most sacred things. Then the “Woe” that Jesus said to the Pharisees also applies to us. “They do all their deeds to be seen by men . . . they love the place of honour at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues, and salutations in the market places” (Matt. 23: 5-7)
These hypocrites, to whom Jesus said “Woe”, are threatened by Jesus’ greatest judgement in eternity. That is why we cannot tolerate the desire for recognition and attention any longer. And this desire gives rise to so many other sins.
We hurt others, we are unloving and place them in the shadow, so that we can appear in a favourable light. Especially in our times, when it will cost us increasingly more and more dishonour, ridicule and disgrace to belong to Jesus and follow Him, our desire for recognition can be our downfall and can even cause us to deny Jesus. Yes, if this addiction to receiving honour from people is so strong in us, Jesus must lament over us-as He did over the Pharisees who did not accept Him, “How can you believe, who receive glory from one another, and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?” (John 5:44). So this sin of desire for recognition which is usually anchored in our personalities, separates us from Jesus and the divine life. That is why we have to get rid of it no matter what the price may be. What can help us?
First of all, we have to let the Spirit of God show us again and again how despicable our desire for recognition is, and then make a definite renunciation: “Lord, I do not want to be anything; I do not want to be respected.” And then we will find that there is power in this resolute renunciation. Jesus accepts it. He, the Son of God, surrendered Himself to being despised and rejected by all. Now He can help us. What is His is ours. He has gained this humility, this desire to be nothing. Then we will receive the greatest gift. We will be respected by God. The Father said that He was well-pleased with His Son when He went down into the River Jordan and let others think that He was a sinner, not worthy of respect. This “going down” brought Jesus special love from the Father and gave Him the greatest joy.
What severe judgment will come upon us, if we refuse to carry the cross that has been laid upon us and complain about it to God and man! Our complaints are usually accusations. If we bear our suffering by saying “Yes, Father” we will come to great glory one day above, and here on earth we will be led into an intimate fellowship of love with Jesus. But if we avoid the cross, we will experience just the opposite. Here on earth we will become unhappy, because we are separated from Jesus. Only those who are His true followers, who go the way of the cross with Him, will be near Him here, and then above for all eternity.
If we want to be with Jesus and want our lives to end in the City of God, there is only one way-the way of the cross. Jesus is asking each of us personally “Will you choose My way of the cross?” He is beckoning to us in love, “Come, follow Me; take up your cross!” If we do not follow the call of Him who loves us more than anyone else, if we refuse to take up our cross and even rebel against it, we will have to hear the Lord say to us as He did to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan!” (Matt. 16: 23). For then the tempter has us in his grip. He will bring all those who do not want their crosses into the kingdom of hell. Then they will have to suffer much worse. Satan wants to use every means to deter us from going the way of the cross, because he does not want us to reach the kingdom of eternal joy. There our cross will change to joy, if we carry it for Jesus here. This is a decision which will have far-reaching consequences for all eternity.
If we want to enter Jesus’ kingdom one day and inherit the crown of life, we have to follow the Apostle Paul’s advice, “Take your share of suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus” (2 Tim. 2: 3). We should surrender ourselves to suffering, for instance, if God lays a cross upon us, if we have to suffer unjustly, if people hurt us without reason, scold us and treat us badly, it is then that we must follow in His footsteps. “When He was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten; but he trusted to him who judged justly” (I Pet. 2: 23). If we want to choose the “ways in Christ” (I Cor. 4: 17), we will suffer everything; persecuted and reviled, we will bless; suffering unjustly, we will be “refuse”, a doormat for all. Then we are on Jesus’ side. Then He will recognize us as His disciples and want to share His glory with us above, giving us thrones and crowns. Those who have suffered with Christ and have patiently borne various types of suffering and afflictions, such as bodily hardships, disappointments, loneliness, the death of dear ones and family troubles, will inherit eternal glory with Jesus (Romans 8: 17). But if we belong to those who complain about every cross and are discouraged and even accuse God with the question, “Why me? Why do I have to suffer?” we could be destroyed by God’s verdict. “But as for the cowardly . . . their lot shall be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone.. .” (Rev. 21: 8).
So everything depends upon whether we really bear our crosses. But how can we get free when we are bound by fear of the cross? The first “must” is to recognize the reason for trying to avoid the cross! We need the insight of truth for our unredeemed, sinful nature. We need to repent of this sinful trait, which makes us guilty again and again. Whoever has recognized how contaminated he is with sin, and is really sorry about it and wants to be freed no matter what it costs, will willingly accept discipline and suffering of all sorts from God. For he tells himself soberly, “I need the crosses to purify and transfigure me into the image of Jesus and so reach the goal of heavenly glory.” But whoever does not take his sins and the eternal goal seriously will find that every type of suffering is too much for him. He will complain about it and accuse God and man instead of honestly admitting that he needs suffering and chastening, and lamenting about his own weaknesses and sins. So we need to ask for contrition over this blindness. Then our attitude towards the cross will change and we will see His blessing in it.
Simply by suffering in the flesh we stop sinning (I Pet. 4: 1). God allows a cross to enter a sinful area of our lives-so that the sin may be put to death, in this way we become transformed more and more into Jesus’image and one day will be able to see Him face to face. Through discipline we share His holiness (Heb. 12: 10) and without holiness, no one will see the Lord (Heb. 12: 14). For instance, the cross of losing earthly goods, if willingly accepted, has often freed people from their bondage to things of this world, making them free to live for Jesus and His kingdom. Or the cross of losing a beloved person, to whom we were bound, freed our soul to give Jesus undivided love and brought the greatest happiness into our hearts. The cross brings glory and deep joy even here on earth, because God the Father in His love cannot wait until eternity; He yearns to reward us here also.
The second “must” for becoming free from trying to avoid the cross is to look at the Father, whose heart is full of love for His child and who carefully considers how much we can bear and what will be best for us. He gives us the very cross that can bring us to glory. He hides a wonderful treasure in our cross. We are to discover it: wonderful fruit, transfiguration, victory, eternal joy, oneness with Jesus. And we must tell ourselves again and again, “Because God is love, suffering is never the end of the story. God always has a way out of suffering; He always has comfort and aid, for He is my Father.” Faith in the Father’s love, which has given us this cross, will make difficult things easy and bitter things sweet.
At the same time look at Jesus. He was the Crossbearer. Humbly bending beneath the heavy burden, He carried His cross lovingly to Calvary for us. He has gone on before us and levelled the ground for us so that we will not stumble. Now He is bearing our cross with us. He knows what it means to carry the cross, since He bore the sins and suffering of all mankind. He knows how to help and strengthen us. Should we not trust Jesus that we can bear it? Yes, if we bear our cross with Jesus, we will come closer to Him than ever before and experience His joy.
So let us renounce our mistrust and stop thinking that God is not love and that He brings us suffering without comfort and aid. For such thoughts nourish our desire to avoid the cross and turn our cross into an unbearable burden. Then we will really become unhappy. The worst suffering is our own desire to avoid the cross. That is why we want to renounce this sin. In faith we want to praise the power of Jesus’ redemption and experience this power in our lives.
My Lord Jesus, You are called the Crucified Lord and the Crossbearer. I have chosen You as my Lord, given You my will and my love, desiring to follow You. Hear my plea:
May You never have to say to me: “You are not worthy of Me; you cannot be My disciple”, because I did not want to carry my cross.
Grant me the grace to say “Yes Father” to every cross, trusting that it has been prepared for me personally and comes from the loving hands of the Father. It will bring me an abundance of divine blessing.
Grant me grace to rejoice in my sufferings (Rom. 5: 3), because they transform me and prepare me for Your kingdom of joy and glory-and also give me intimate fellowship with You, my Lord Jesus, here on earth, and let me taste eternal joy.
I thank you, my Lord Jesus, for showing us: In the cross is great fruit in the cross is glory in the cross is victory, power and resurrection. The cross frees my soul from this earth and draws me to heaven. The cross brings me gain here and above.
Teach me to love my cross as a precious gift from Your hand, which I will thank You for in eternity. Out of love for You, my Lord Jesus, I wish to follow You. Make me a true cross-bearer. Amen.
Only love will keep her vigilant–the love that God, who first loved us, has poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit. Being born of God, this love has within it the seed of divine life. It is immortal and indestructible and never sleeps. And so the heart of the bride is awake even when she sleeps (Song of Solomon 5:2).
Love is awake within the heart of the bride of Jesus, no matter what darkness may surround her, no matter how great the danger of being overcome with sleep. This love is like a sensitive instrument. A single string plucked by the One she loves sounds in her heart, and immediately the bride is awake. Rising quickly, she rushes to meet Him. She would never miss those times when her Bridegroom draws near; for her, such encounters are foretaste of heaven. So she will not sleep through the hour when the Bridegroom comes in glory to take His bride to Himself and to celebrate with her the marriage supper of the Lamb.
If you want to be a bride of the Lamb ready to go out to meet the Bridegroom when He comes, then take care that this love is alive in you. Do not let it fade, but rather let it keep you spiritually alive and alert. Without this love, you will not be ready when He comes at midnight. Only if divine love burns in your heart can you awaken in a state of readiness, shaking off the paralyzing sleep that will overcome all humanity, believers and nonbelievers alike.
The midnight hour is near. The signs Jesus spoke about in Matthew 24 are being fulfilled. Love is growing cold in many. God’s commandments are widely rejected. The onward march of lawlessness is causing devastation and despair. Blasphemy is on the rise, indicating a burning hatred of Jesus Christ. In many parts of the world Christians are suffering for their faith. God’s chosen people are returning to the land of their fathers. The Gospel is being preached through the world. The Bridegroom is preparing to meet His own. But for whom will He open the door to the banqueting hall, where the marriage supper of the Lamb is to be celebrated on that glorious day of union between the heavenly Bridegroom and His bride, when heaven resounds with the sound of singing and rejoicing? Those for whom love for Jesus is a way of life will see that door open.
Use what time is left. Open your heart wide so that love for Jesus can flow in and shape your life; then, even while you sleep, this love is actively present–simply because your whole being is given over to Him. Do not tolerate anything that would diminish your love for Jesus and cause Him to withdraw His love from you. Do not tolerate a negative attitude toward any person. Do not tolerate any false attachments to people and things. Do not tolerate anything that would draw your away from Jesus’ path of lowliness, poverty, disgrace, and obedience. Resist the temptation to go your own way, gratifying self. Be on your guard against losing the love you had at first.
The hour is coming when the One whom your soul loves will appear, but you will not notice if you are not aglow with first love. Nor will your be drawn to Him, for only those who love Him with first love will be drawn to the Bridegroom. In that hour it will be too late to open your heart so that it may be filled afresh with love for Jesus, too late to buy the oil of love. Your heart must already be filled with this love. You must be a bride with all your being so that He will receive you as such when He comes for His bride. He will take as His bride only those who loved Him ardently, even in the darkest moments, and who were ready because their lamps were filled with the oil of repentance and love.
O day of supreme happiness when Jesus celebrates the marriage supper of the Lamb with His bride amid the rejoicing of heaven! It is worth sacrificing everything to gain bridal love, the pearl of great price, in order to know the joy of that day. Yet even if we were to give up everything in this life that is desirable and satisfying for body soul, and spirit for the sake of this love, we would still have given too little. Attaining the supreme goal of the marriage supper of the Lamb is worth everything.
Know that the midnight hour is approaching, and with it the marriage supper of the Lamb. The Bridegroom is coming. Turn your back on everything that would hinder you from going to meet Him. Live only to love Him.
Or we begin to worry about our children and how they are growing up, especially if they begin to do things of which we do not approve. Or worries may arise due to marital problems. Whether it be in physical or spiritual matters, in public or personal matters–the more variety modern man seems to have, the more variety his worries have.
Because our well-being, and the well-being of our families, is never completely secure for the future, we are never secure from attacks of worry. Usually we feel sorry for ourselves, because we think we have so many things to worry about and they irritate us.
But Jesus says something different about worrying. Jesus says that worrying is the business of the heathen. Worrying grows out an unchristian attitude (Matt. 6:32). Therefore, worrying is a sin. Why? Worrying means that our hearts are not rooted in the Kingdom of God and we do not seek it above all; we do not have God in the centre of our lives. We do not seek the Kingdom of God, because we are not captivated by it. Rather we are captivated by things that are more important to us; a steady income, good health, recognition, well-being of body and soul for ourselves and our families. These are the centre of our thoughts.
But this cannot stay that way. For then God will say that we belong to the heathen, who do not know a living God, and are not His own, His children. If we are influenced by the spirit of worrying, the reason lies in our disbelief, in our discouragement. We worry, because we do not believe that God as a Father will take care of us. But when Scripture tells us about the cowardly and the faithless, it says, “their lot shall be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death” (Rev. 21: 8). So at all costs we have to overcome our spirit of worry so that the enemy will not have a right to claim us. Not only for the sake of eternity, but also for the sake of our peace of mind here, we have to be freed. It is not the actual needs and sufferings, but rather worrying that brings sorrow into our lives. That is why we have to get to the bottom of this matter and find out what is the root of our worrying in order to ask how we can overcome it.
The root of worrying is our fear of the cross. Worrying is nourished by the fear that we can lose some of the benefits we possess for body or soul, security or comfort. Then we would have to suffer-and we cannot commit ourselves to this suffering. We want to protect ourselves from the difficult things that lie ahead of us. So our worrying thoughts centre around how we can avoid the difficulties.
In our pride we often think we can master our lives alone, independent of God’s help. When we come to the end of our possibilities, our worries, nourished by our fear of suffering, begin to captivate us.
Therefore, the way to begin to overcome this sin of worrying is to commit ourselves to suffering! We must say “Yes” to all the difficult things that are in our hearts. In spirit, we must lay upon the altar of sacrifice everything that we want to hold on to at any cost and say:
Take my life and everything that makes life
worthwhile and precious for me, my health, my
dear ones, my security, my wishes and whatever else
I have and would like to keep for the future! I surrender
my will to You, if You want to take everything
from me. I will not cling to anything any
more, because I trust You, my God and my Father,
and You will take care of me and my family and
give us everything we need in the future. I will only
expect help from You. You will not disappoint me.
Up until now You have always sustained me, and
because You are always the same, You will also sustain
me in difficult times.
If we picture in our minds who our Father is, and declare His wonderful traits, then every worry must yield in the sight of His omnipotence and love. Every time we commit ourselves to suffering, let us say to Him:
God, You are my Father, who has lovingly
thought of all that I, Your child, need. I trust that
You will give me everything I need, especially in
times of trouble. You will take care of me. My
Father, You will sustain me. You will not let me be
tempted beyond my strength. As a Father, You have
prepared a way for me and my family. I trust You!
My Father, You are greater than all troubles which
could possibly come upon me! Your power is
stronger and You will help me!
It is absolutely necessary to arrive at this “Yes, Father” prayer, if we want to be freed from the spirit of worrying. Otherwise it will bring us into misfortune and our “heathen” worries will really materialize. We can see this when we look at the people of Israel in the desert. They are filled with worries that the future would be dreadful and that they would perish in the desert. And then the Lord said, Yes, exactly what Israel declared in its mistrust and worrying spirit would come to pass-and they did perish in the desert (Num. 14: 28ff). But those who trusted God and said that He would sustain them, found that He did sustain them. They did not die in the desert and they could take over the promised land.
Whatever we expect from God will happen! If we are full of worries, we do not expect anything good from God. That is why we will not experience the good things that God has actually planned for us. We are destroying them through our worrying. Worrying is the opposite of trusting the Father. Worrying has to do with unbelief, which has to be overcome at all costs, because it really excludes us from the “promised land” which contains all physical and spiritual wealth and blessings for us.
If it is hard for us to trust in faith, we should begin, as I mentioned, by describing who the Father is and how He will help. And the spirit of worry will be silenced. For the spirit of trust is more powerful than the spirit of worry, which comes from the devil. We must cling to the promise in His word, “Cast all your anxieties upon him, for he cares about you” (1 Peter 5: 7). We should then make a prayer out of all our worries by bringing them to our Father, according to the Apostle Paul’s exhortation, “Have no anxiety about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” Then we will find “the peace of God, which passes all understanding” (Phil. 4: 6, 7).
But then follows the second piece of advice that Jesus gives us for the battle against the sin of worry; “But seek first his kingdom . . .” (Matt. 6: 33). In the present time, which God has granted as a time of grace, we must live completely for His Kingdom. We must spend ourselves, all our time and energy for His work. We must invest time in prayer and money in His work. If we do this we shall begin to discover what the Lord’s promise really means. Now and in the future, whenever trouble may knock on our door, our Father will keep His word, “. .. all these things shall be yours as well” (Matt. 6: 33).
Whoever takes care of Jesus’ work and sacrifices time, money and energy for it, will find that the Lord will take care of him. In times of trouble he will experience the miracles and tender loving care of the Father, he will be sustained and receive help for body, soul and spirit in wonderful ways. His Word is Yea and Amen. Therefore, we must act according to His Word and we will receive help. The spirit of worry must yield when we call upon the name of God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. In this way we will set up a signpost declaring the omnipotence and goodness of God. His Name will be glorified through people who are comforted and secure, because all their worries have been quieted in Him.
God’s judgment will come down in a dreadful way upon those who persist in being angry. Jesus said that those who hurl angry insults at their neighbours will find their eternal place in the fire of hell, if they do not repent of their anger (Matt. 5: 22). Jesus tells us clearly and unmistakably: Just as the meek belong to Him, the angry belong to Satan and his kingdom of darkness. Therefore, no matter what the cost, we must be freed from anger, from flaring up and being vehement.
We must not fall into Satan’s traps. We know his tricks. He tries to convince us that we have to shout at people every once in a while just as Jesus did when He drove the money-changers out of the temple. But when he tries this trick, we can only say: “Get behind me, Satan, you blasphemer!” Jesus was not a sinner like us, but the Holy One of God, filled with the spirit of love, and He was only acting out of the agony of love when He saw the sacred temple being desecrated by sin. He was angry, because He wanted to save; His anger was a reaction of His love.
On the other hand, we really ought to know what our heart is like. It is a den of robbers. Evil thoughts come out of it (Matt. 15: 19). It is like a cup of poison. If we think we are helping others to get straight, by shouting at them angrily, we are handing them a poisonous drink. Our good intentions are mixed with bitterness and indignation. Can there be anything good or loving behind our angry, vehement words when all this is resting in our hearts? What liars and hypocrites we are, if we pretend that we just want to help the other person get back on the right path by giving him a piece of our mind. In truth we usually just want to give vent to our annoyance and anger-and because this is Satan’s poison, it cannot help others and free them. It will only make them more set in their evil ways.
Satan’s poison of anger and flaring up has to be removed from our hearts and lives, if we want to be free from Satan’s power. And Whoever fights a battle of faith in hatred against this sin will be freed from it, for Jesus has come to destroy the works of the devil. Should He not also conquer this devilish anger in us? Did not God make Moses, who killed the Egyptian in great vehemence, more meek “than all men that were on the face of the earth” (Num. 12: 3)?
We have to make an “about-face”, declare war on our anger and choose the way of Jesus. “To this you have been called . . . that you should follow in his steps . . . . When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten” (I Peter 2: 21-23). In our mind let us picture Jesus, who says, “I am gentle” (Matthew 11: 29) Jesus, the Lamb of God, filled with gentleness, patience and meekness–a picture of love that overcomes all! And to this image He has redeemed us. We should reflect this love, which wins other people, which is the opposite of anger and vehemence. It is gentleness and mildness which has great power and thaws out hard hearts like a spring wind.
Should it not be possible for God to make us gentle and meek? Jesus has paid the ransom price and broken the power of Satan and sin so that we no longer have to serve this sin of anger. We have truly been redeemed from the futile ways inherited from our fathers (1 Pet. 1:18). The disposition of our fathers-like vehemence and anger-which we have inherited, can no longer rule over us. This sin has been nailed to His cross and our inheritance is the new disposition, the image of God. In Christ we are a new creation, redeemed to the image of the Lamb, who was meek and humble-this we must claim in faith.This way of meekness leads us to heaven. The meek are called blessed. The way of the angry leads to hell. We can choose. If we want to follow the way of the Lamb, Jesus, “the Captain of our salvation” (Heb. 2: 10 AV), will proceed us and we will tread in His footsteps. That means in practice: If we are upset and annoyed about something, we should not go to the other person immediately to give vent to our anger. Wait and pray first. Perhaps instead of hitting him with a long tirade, we might just write down a few lines on paper. We must never let the sun go down upon our anger, but humble ourselves before God and if necessary also before the people against whom we were angry. God will bless such steps taken in obedience and will remould us into gentler people.
So often in everyday life we see the alarming results of this seemingly harmless sin. How often is a relationship of love disturbed, because someone gets annoyed? Then we begin to wrong each other. That can happen in many different ways. For instance, many marriages have gone on the rocks, because one of the marriage partners was always annoyed whenever they had anything to discuss. Peace was disturbed. Every objective discussion was made impossible and they could no longer approach each other in love. Often, for this reason, children have lost their confidence in their parents or teachers, who were always annoyed with them. And we make our colleagues at work feel unhappy when we are continually annoyed. They no longer feel like working. By being annoyed, we can destroy things that we cannot make amends for.
Why do we get annoyed? Because we are not at one with the will of God. That is why everything that does not suit us upsets us. We object to everything. Or demands are made on us which we think are too much. Or someone’s request upsets our intentions and we react with annoyance. But we do not realize that all things, large and small, that come from people, are actually placed in our daily lives by God. When we get upset, we rebel against God and grieve Him. And why do we get annoyed at people, at situations and conditions? Because our ego or our self-will is so big. Everything has to go the way we intended, the way we think is right, the way that is easiest for us. Every wish, opinion or mistake that others make meets with our opposition.
This annoyance or irritation is just as dangerous and sinful as anger. Anger seems to be more uncouth. But usually it only comes over us every once in a while. People who tend to be annoyed are almost always annoyed. Indeed, they even get into the habit of talking this way. They have no idea that they have become instruments of Satan, who wants to destroy peace and the fellowship of love. Then he will reach his goal and we will be acting against the very wishes of Jesus; “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13: 35).
Scripture says; “Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for edifying, as fits the occasion, that it may impart grace to those who hear” (Eph. 4: 29). That is, we should speak that which will do others good and serve to bring peace. But annoyance only brings about the opposite, and for this reason we have to become free from it. Otherwise we are a disgrace to Jesus through our words and reactions.
When we are annoyed, our faces are sullen and we reproach others. Annoyance hinders joy and ruins life together. But the Kingdom of Jesus Christ is a kingdom of joy and peace. Annoyance does not fit in. Therefore, it has to be overcome; it cannot have any more room in our lives.
We often try to make excuses for being annoyed. We say it is due to weak nerves or because we are “down”. But irritation and annoyance come from our evil hearts and ultimately do not have anything to do with fatigue or weak nerves. Having weak nerves or being overworked just brings out what is really deep down in our hearts. When we get into such situations, we have no reason to excuse ourselves or even to pity ourselves. But we have every reason to repent and to call upon the name of Jesus. In this way we will be set free from these evil things that come from our hearts, are expressed by our tongues and disrupt the peace.
This has to happen when we become conscious of our first annoyed thought. Then we have to proceed against it immediately and counter it by saying: God has ordained this. This situation, this word, this person, or whatever it may be, was actually sent to me by God. It is part of His plan. Then annoyance loses its power. And if it should escape us in a critical situation and explode in our speech, let us ask forgiveness immediately. Hating sin and being sorry for it drive us to settle accounts with God every night and tell Him when we are annoyed. If we call upon Jesus to forgive us, we must also be ready to repent concretely, to ask people whom we have grieved for forgiveness, if we have not already done so. Practising this surrender of our wills to the will of God in everyday situations and fighting the battle of faith by praising the blood of Jesus, which always sets us free, will lead to release from this sin as well.The most important thing is to recognize that annoyance-along with many other sinful ailments that we usually do not count as sin-is really a sin. It must disappear from our lives. Once we recognize this, we will rely upon Jesus’ redemption and His blood, which contains healing for every sin. Then we will bring this sin to Him. Then we will become ashamed whenever we become annoyed, because we know that we are making Jesus sad and that we are becoming guilty by destroying some of His kingdom. Then we must follow Jesus’ call: “Repent!” Turn away from this path of yours, do not give annoyance any more room!
He is concerned about a special kind of love. It is the love which is shadowed in the relationship between a bride and her bridegroom; that is, it is an exclusive love, a love which places the beloved, the bridegroom, above all other loves, in the first place. As a Bridegroom, Jesus has a claim to “first love”. He who has loved us so much wants to possess us completely, with everything we are and have. Jesus gave Himself wholly and completely for us. Now His love is yearning for us to surrender ourselves and everything that we are to Him, so that He can really be our “first love”. So long as our love for Him is a divided love, so long as our heart is bound to family, possessions, or the like, He will not count our love to be genuine. Divided love is of so little value to Him that He will not enter into a bond of love with such a soul, for this bond presupposes a full mutual love. Because our love is so precious to Jesus, because He yearns for our love, He waits for our uncompromising commitment.
Whenever there are two alternatives, true love always chooses Jesus. If, for example, Jesus calls someone into the mission-field, then for Jesus’ sake he has to depart from his native land, often leaving his family behind or being separated from his wife for a while. The love for these things has to take second place. Jesus can be our true love, our first love, only if this love takes priority over all others only if, whenever we are faced with the choice between Jesus or people and things, we choose Him. Jesus has the right to make such a claim upon our love, because there is no one like Him. No one is so full of glory, so full of royal beauty and powerful love as Jesus. His love is so overwhelming, so tender so intimate, so fiery and so strong. No human love could ever be compared with it. No one loves so exclusively, so faithfully and with such loving care. No one exists so exclusively for us as Jesus. Jesus knows what He can bestow with His love. He knows how happy He can make a human soul. That is why He has a thousand times more right than an earthly bridegroom to say, “Give Me everything-your whole love-your first love, for which you would leave earthly things behind, just as a bride would put aside all her other desires and would give up home and fatherland."
Jesus stands before us as One who entreats. He wants to take complete possession of us. His love is a jealous love, because it is so great and filled with such a strong ardor for us (Ex. 34:14). It is a grief to Him when we do not return His love with all that we are and have. His love for us is so powerful that it yearns to receive the ultimate of love from us, and for the true bride there is nothing more blissful than to surrender her whole being, her whole love to the One who loves her. Indeed, if her Bridegroom takes her completely into His possession, it is bliss for her. Divine possession-blessed words! God has taken possession of me. He longs for me so utterly that He is not satisfied until I give myself wholly and completely to Him. Only he who loves Jesus in this way can comprehend Jesus in His deepest nature, for only the soul that has given itself to Him completely in love can experience His great and intimate love.
We remember the rich young ruler. Jesus loved him, and the rich young ruler longed for the love-relationship to God. Jesus saw his deep desire to enter into this fellowship of life and love with God. Jesus showed him the way: to attain the precious pearl, eternal life, one has to sell something, one has to give up something-indeed, one must give up everything. This is inevitable, because the divine, eternal life is loving and this loving must be whole-hearted. In order to give my whole love to Him, I have to forsake other things I love. The rich young ruler went away sorrowful, and to this day (as I have known for myself), we believers are often dismal and depressed. We have not been caught up into His great joy, because the heartfelt, blissful relationship of love to Jesus is lacking. So long as we cannot bring ourselves to give Jesus our first love, we shall not know this relationship. It may be that some are afraid of falling into false asceticism or legalism, but it is usually because we are chained to our earthly possessions, to our honor, to our profession, to people we love, and so on. We will not give Jesus our undivided love.
Jesus said to the rich young ruler: “Sell-give up-follow Me-bind yourself to Me and My way! Out of love give Me your life and everything that makes it rich and desirable for you. Give it to Me-not as an ascetic act, no, out of love and I will give you the eternal, divine, overflowing life of love, which is the richest way of all, and which will make you abundantly happy. For only I can grant the highest life.” Jesus can say this, because He is “the Life”. Whoever follows Him, whoever joins Him, is joined to that Life, to the stream of life and love that flows without end.
Yes, whoever follows Him receives eternal life. That is what I found. For years I had lived on “cheap grace”-not answering His call for uncompromising discipleship as obligatory for my life. But then the time came when His love overwhelmed me. Then, as His disciple I consciously chose His way. In the affairs of life, I tried to choose the lowly place, the way of poverty, the way of the Lamb which is described in the Sermon on the Mount. I tried not to insist upon being right, not to strike back and not to retaliate when I was wronged. During the war and the post-war period, I gave up my last possessions according to Jesus’ commandment: “Give and it will be given to you …” (Luke 6: 38). From then on I knew for myself that whoever follows Jesus is really joined to the “eternal Life”, to the spring of love that flows without end. I knew that this spring of love was poured out most into the hearts of the sinful and the poor. Ever since I had begun to take seriously Jesus’ call to discipleship, I have been shown the real, true, divine standards for my life. Over and over again I sinned against them, but my sins drove me straight into the arms of Jesus, impelled me to claim His redeeming blood and reopened the fountain of His love.
In Gethsemane, Jesus waited with such yearning in His heart for His disciples to stand by His side and show Him their love, but He sought and waited in vain. While He was in Bethany before His passion, He had also looked for love. There He found someone, who sympathized with Him and understood how heavy His heart was, because the time had come for Him to begin His road of sorrows. This was Mary. Her love had shown her how deeply grieved was His soul, and she did what she could do for Him. Her entire concern was to comfort and refresh Him. That is why she did not give her money to the poor (and so incurred the disciples’ reproach), but rather “wasted” it on Jesus Himself (Matt. 26: 8, 12). She wanted to comfort and refresh Him, because He was so grieved.
I shall never forget the time when it sank into my heart that because Jesus is the same today as He was yesterday, and because His heart is still suffering today, He is waiting for us to make Him happy and to refresh Him, yes, as the scriptures say, to be comforters for Him (Psalm 69:20). Since that time, my first concern has been Jesus Himself and not my ministry for Him, although I have throughout sought to fulfill that ministry. Now I was concerned about if one may express it this way the ministry unto Jesus. Since that time adoration has burned in my heart. I was grieved for Jesus’ sake, because He received so little love in words and songs of adoration. Since then adoration has never been lacking in my prayer life. Although I am a pronounced active and social type, from that time on I have been constrained to spend every free minute in my room so that I could talk to Jesus in prayer. I sense that He is waiting. A bridegroom always waits for His bride to come to Him so that He can carry on a dialogue of love with her.
Jesus is yearning to have fellowship with us and to hear words of love drop from our lips. He is waiting for us. He wants us to be close to Him. He wants to speak to us in our hearts, to cultivate love’s intimate relationship with us. Only in times of quiet when no one else distracts us, and nothing else draws us away, can Jesus visit us with His love. Let him who wishes to know the presence of Jesus and who desires to enter into bridal love for Jesus keep his times of quiet holy and faithfully for Him.
Jesus is waiting for our love. As important as our sacrifices and our obedience to the commandments are for God (the rich young ruler sacrificed, and kept the commandments), they are not enough. Sacrifices and obedience do not necessarily yield the “eternal, divine life”. Love does not necessarily pulsate through them. Jesus is pulsating life and love and He wants to impart His nature to us. Therefore, only our love, which stems from the divine, eternal life which He has granted to us, is the proper response to His love for us. This love leads us to keep His commandments, which are His wishes for us. It will lead us to bring Him many gifts, and to offer Him sacrifices-but in a different spirit.
This love has radiant power. It radiates happiness and great joy. The Bridegroom is the Master of joy, who has been anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows (Psalm 45: 7). His bride participates in this great joy. She belongs to Him, the Sun of love, Who shines forth in light and joy. She is united to Him in marriage. His joyful radiance falls upon her being. It is love which brings more bliss and joy than anything else into the world. The joy of an earthly bride is but a faint shadow of the true, eternal joy of the bride of the Lamb. Bridal love for Jesus is filled with delight. There is no greater, happier, higher, richer love.
Everything depends upon whether or not I am at one with Jesus. Jesus says, “He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit” (John 15: 5). Only what we do in union with Jesus, who is “Life”, will have divine life and never perish. Only that will we be able to find as fruit in eternity.
But we know that Satan makes every effort to rob us of this eternal fruit. He wants to hinder us, at any cost, from spending the day united with our Lord Jesus, because he knows that this oneness with Jesus makes us strong. Then we are at one with the Lord of heaven and earth, who has power over every name that is named. His power is then ours and provides blessing for our work. On the other hand, if we poor sinners are separated from Jesus, we can only do worthless things, that will blow away like chaff, no matter how good they may look at first.
That is why Satan tries every possible trick to make our work completely captivate us and thus separate us from Jesus. Work can chain us, because it interests us too much, because it satisfies our human desires and because we find our fulfilment in it. Work can incite our ambition. We want to attain many things and receive success and recognition. Some just love to work. They like to see what they can do. Or work can become an escape, a way to deaden our consciences, because we have not kept our lives straightened out. During such periods our prayer-times become quite unbearable. Some people who have a great deal to do fall into the mad rush. They are wound up and therefore cannot pray while they work.
So Satan comes at us from various directions and tries to drive us into busyness, into a life without Jesus, for Satan is the malicious spirit of unrest. Jesus, however, is the Prince of peace. Whoever does His work with Him is in peace and does not rush. Then our industrious work is not a mad rush. We are not enslaved to work and driven by it, but we work together with God, drawing our strength from our times of quiet. It is full of divine life, zeal and joy.
But even though we know that we are only unhappy when we are separated from Jesus, there are usually chains binding us to our work. Again and again we have to lament that we lose our communion with Jesus during the course of the day. Indeed, when we are engaged in our various tasks, we tend to forget Him for hours. But this busyness in our work can no longer be tolerated in our lives. It is not simply harmless “rushing” or “losing oneself in the work”, rather it is a sin which will bring us the most severe punishment. Who has ever applied Jesus’ words seriously to his own busyness? “If a man does not abide in me, he is cast forth as a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned” (John 15: 6) “Cast forth” is the fate of the busy. They will be cast forth from the countenance of Jesus and His kingdom, because they did not work for God in personal love for Him and in His sight. Not only will his works be burned, but also he himself. So we must be redeemed from busyness, no matter what the cost.
But how do we get there? “Abiding in Him”, doing everything together with Jesus, is a matter of practice. We should practise saying the name JESUS over and over again in our heart. While we are working, we should practise saying, “For You! For You!” Before going to sleep, let us ask ourselves whether we were with Jesus during the day. Let us ask the Spirit of God to admonish us the next day to think about Jesus. During our morning prayer before work let us lay this request before Him again. And if we suffer especially under the sin of busyness, we should let Him show us how we can be reminded at work to speak a prayer every hour.
We must not stop beseeching the Lord for this “abiding in Christ”, even if we experience many defeats. Every time we have lost the inner contact with Him at work, we should try to tie the bond anew, though it may be a hundred times a day. The fruit of our work for all eternity depends upon this. We must set for ourselves a definite goal of faith. And let us ask Jesus every day:
Let me be immersed in You, deeper and deeper, until I can no longer lose You. Set me free through the power of Your blood from my bondage to work!
God will answer and we will experience that Jesus is a Redeemer, who will set us free from the chains which bind us to our work. Then we will be bound to Him and bring forth eternal fruit to His glory.
Jesus You are my everything! I will talk with You and work for You! I want to plan, consider and make all my decisions with You! Nothing shall be done without You, lest You should become an outcast. Bind me tightly to You, so that nothing can separate us during the day: no work, no burden, no other interest, no joy. May I evermore live in Your holy presence, For You are here!
The vain and conceited forget, however, that there is another mirror–the eye of God, which shows us the truth about ourselves, what is behind the facade Then we see how “vain” everything really is, how transient and perishable. But if we avoid the mirror of God, we are deceiving ourselves with the mirror of human eyes which we look into all the time with the questions: How do others react to us? Are we good-looking? Are we popular? Then our conceit grows and grows, but in the end it will make us unhappy. For the greater it becomes, the more it begins to tyrannize us. We can no longer do anything without reflecting on how others will react. We make others around us feel uneasy, because at least unconsciously they feel the demands of our ego, our vanity.
Vanity places the ego on the throne. It idolizes the ego and that is why it is a great sin. Every idol takes over the place that God ought to have in our life. That is why the same verdict that God pronounced over the idol-worshippers will hit us. For we cannot serve God and our ego idol. We want others to burn incense to our ego. Our conceitedness wants others to admire our looks, our intelligence, our talents and our abilities and burn incense to them. In some cases this is combined with addiction to worldly riches. Then we spend great sums of money for an expensive wardrobe and other things that might help us gain the admiration of others.
But above all, conceit, the desire to be pleasing to our fellow-men, makes us insensitive to the most important thing for our life here and in eternity: that we be pleasing to God. No one will be pleasing to God by presenting an attractive appearance or displaying his talents and abilities. Only those who do not want to be anything in the eyes of men will attain God’s good pleasure. This is the point we have to come to. It would be terrible to lose the pleasure of God while seeking pleasure from men. Then we will be far away from Jesus. That is why we have to repent completely.
The first step to getting rid of this sin is to admit honestly that we are vain and conceited. If we let the light of God show us this, we can only say; “How could I ever be conceited? My sins are so ugly. Even if I should be especially attractive or gifted, what does this matter in the eyes of God, who knows what really is in my heart? I ought to be ashamed of being so far away from God, because I am pleased with my poor and ugly being."
Now we must ask for “eye salve” (Rev. 3: 18). What does that mean? It means that we ask God and other people to tell us what we really are like without sparing our feelings. That will hurt, but it will help us to see the truth about ourselves. We must also ask the Lord; “Prevent me from hearing anyone praise me, and bring as much of my sin as possible into the light, so that I can see it more clearly. Then I will have to be ashamed and will lose my conceit. Yes, I even ought to tell others what I really am so that I will be humbled and learn not to live from their favour, but from the forgiveness and mercy of God."
Another step to becoming free from vanity is to reveal our conceited thoughts, to confess them to another person. If we want to receive grace from God, we have to be free from conceit and vanity, because grace is only given to the humble and contrite sinners, who are no longer pleased with themselves. But if we continue to admire our supposed qualities in the mirror and let our left hand see what our right hand has done, we have already had our reward (Matt. 6: 1 ff).
There is One who found no pleasure in Himself, and He is the only One who deserved to find pleasure in Himself: Jesus (Rom. 15: 3). And in Him we are righteous, that is, we have been set right from every sin, including vanity and conceit. That is why we should praise Him in faith, saying: “Jesus will set us free from this sin. He will remake us into His image which is free from vanity and conceit. He will change our hearts so that we will no longer seek to be pleasing to men, but only to God.”
Cowardice is nothing more than a consequence of being afraid of bearing the cross. Cowardice usually goes hard in hand with fear, especially with the fear of suffering. This fear, this cowardice, often leads to short-circuit reactions which could cause us to become very guilty, or could make us deny people, even Jesus and His church. Cowardice often makes us untruthful, inconsiderate and irresponsible. It can even allow others to suffer in order to save our own skin. Out of cowardice Peter denied his Lord; the disciples left Jesus in the lurch. Cowardice has caused, or at least not done anything to prevent, countless disasters.
What catastrophic consequences cowardice had for the German people during the Third Reich! And when the time of the Antichrist arrives and everyone worships his image and has to bear his mark (Rev. 13: 15, 16), the main reason for betraying Jesus at this time will be cowardice. It will have terrible consequences. These people are threatened with the punishment of God: “he shall drink the wine of God’s wrath . . . and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment goes up for ever and ever; and they have no rest, day or night” (Rev. 14: 10, 11). Our cowardly behaviour can bring us such judgment in eternity if we do not repent and turn over a new leaf.
That is why we have to hate this sin and begin an all-out fight against it today. Yes, if confessing the name of Jesus and upholding the commandments demands courage in our times, we absolutely must overcome our cowardice; in the future much more courage will be demanded, when people will not only ridicule the believers, but will also lay their hands upon them. If we tolerate our cowardice and make it seem harmless, we will deny and betray our Lord Jesus Christ and lose the heavenly glory for all eternity.
The important question is: How can we overcome our cowardice? One way is to dedicate ourselves to suffering. We should surrender ourselves by writing down our dedication. Furthermore we must be willing to take upon ourselves all the difficult things that we are afraid of and that may be in store for us. And we must say; “My Father, I do not know how I will be able to bear the difficult things if they should come, but I am counting on Your help. You will make me strong and pull me through. FATHER, I believe in Your love, which has already taken into account what I can bear and will not let me be tempted beyond my strength. If the difficult things should really come, I know that You, My FATHER, will comfort and refresh me in my suffering, even in martyrdom."
Yes, we must believe that we will taste heaven in the midst of suffering. And then, when we are deprived of people, things, love and honour, we will be happy, because Jesus will come to us as the Prince of joy. In experiencing His love, our sorrow will be changed into joy, as many people who were in prison and concentration camps can testify.
Because suffering is never the end in God’s plan. He will afterwards prove His goodness to us all the more. Jesus Himself trusted His Father and experienced that the Father sustained Him throughout the fear and horror of Gethsemane.
Thus we can surrender ourselves into the kind hands of God, to the loving will of the Father and take the sting out of the difficult things by saying to the Lord; “In faith, I want to go the way that You have planned for me, even if it is difficult for me. You will shed light on my dark path and make it straight for me.” Then our hearts will be in peace. Fear and cowardice will be broken, because we have yielded to the difficult things which the coward always wants to escape.
The second way to overcome our cowardice-and if we neglect this, we will never be free-is to take Jesus at His word. With compassion He said, “in the world you have tribulation”, but He also added, “But be of good cheer: I have overcome the world” (John 16: 33). He has trodden fear beneath His feet. And we will find, if we claim this statement, that fear will no longer be able to rule over us. His peace will come into our hearts.
Jesus has promised us “My peace I give unto you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid” (John 14: 27). And this He will do, if we expect it and call upon the victorious name of Jesus, proclaiming its power over our fear. Just as the cowardly disciples became strong after Pentecost, we too become strong men, who are not afraid of humiliation, disgrace, persecution or laying down our lives. Jesus, who powerfully changed His disciples through the Holy Spirit, is the same Lord today. He will turn us cowards into people who will testify to their convictions and be true disciples of Jesus, who are faithful to Him and will attain the crown of life (Rev. 2: 10).
| The holy hour is coming,
When from the heavenly throne
God's Son, who was incarnate,
Will come to claim His own.He waits with love expectant
For His beloved bride.
Her life to Him she's given;
With bonds of love she's tied.
She hastens quickly to Him With joy and heavenly bliss, In every way preparing, To be completely His. For through the blood of Jesus, She now may walk in white, Attain the heavenly wedding, His realm of purest light. The midnight hour is striking, And dawn no longer far. So keep a constant vigil, Soon shines the morning star. Oh, live then for His advent. The trumpet sound is near, Announcing He is coming. At last the day is here! From her book ‘My All for Him’ |
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Not knowing what is going on, not being in prayer and not working with God can have another reason: daydreaming. Some seek refuge in certain thoughts and others take refuge in daydreams and live in an imaginary world. Whether we are absent-minded or whether we daydream, our thoughts are not under the dominion of God. We have withheld a certain section of our lives from Him. Yet we usually do not realize that our absent-mindedness and daydreaming cause us to withdraw from Jesus and His demands on us. For whether we want to cling to something that fascinates us or whether we lose ourselves in daydreaming we are keeping Jesus from coming into our hearts and dwelling there.
That has serious consequences, for whatever is not under the dominion of God, Satan takes as his sphere of influence. How often have daydreams actually led us to take a sinful path in our life? Satan took possession of our daydreams.
Such seemingly harmless dreaming is not therefore really harmless. In addition to the fact that it can lead to concrete sins, it always separates us from Jesus and therefore deprives us of the fruit of our lives for eternity.
But that’s not all. Jesus says, “If a man does not abide in me he is cast forth as a branch and withers, and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned.” (John 15:6). Here Jesus is telling us how serious the punishment will be-we will be thrown away- that is, we will be separated from Him and His kingdom above, because we lived apart from Him here on earth.
That is why we must be set free from our absent-mindedness and daydreaming at all costs. Otherwise it will bring us the greatest sorrow in all eternity-having to live far away from Jesus as an outcast. Therefore, the first thing we must do is repent, because we have lost the “first love” (Rev. 2: 4), the love that keeps us with Jesus all day long with all our heart, with all our thoughts, in all our activities.
So, if our lives are still bound to anything but Jesus, to our egos, our wishes, people or things, we must repent. This is where our wandering thoughts during prayer come from. That is why we cannot follow a conversation with others. Other ideas captivate our thoughts and fantasy all day long. It is necessary to break away from things in order to be freed. We must break away from people and groups which are not in God’s will for us, or stop reading certain books and magazines, or not read too many of them, even including Christian ones. We mast also stop spending so much time talking with other people if we sense that it fascinates us and has a hold upon us. It also means doing away with certain types of work and service that are not necessary and are only done to satisfy ourselves, and to use the extra time for prayer. If Satan wants to prevent you from praying by telling you it is impossible to find time, you know the answer: Where there is a will, there is a way. The more we break with other things and have time apart with God to speak with Him, the more the absent-mindedness will disappear and Jesus will take you into His world.
Often there is another root for our daydreaming and absentmindedness: our desire to avoid the cross. We do not want to see reality with all its problems, the reality of the darkness of the world, the reality of God’s holiness and our sin. We do not want to bear the consequences of this: taking the cross upon ourselves and fighting the battle of faith against our sin. Therefore, we flee into our make-believe world with our absent-minded thoughts and daydreams. But in reality we cannot get away from the difficult things. We are actually even more at their mercy, because we are separated from Jesus. We must ask the Holy Spirit to give us light about this and a deep spirit of repentance in order to make a thorough break from this dreaming.
I have found something that has helped me very much. Every evening, at the end of my prayers, and in the morning, before I begin my work, I ask the Holy Spirit to admonish me, whenever I begin to lose myself in my thoughts again. And Jesus answers my prayer. He also gives me the dread and hatred of everything that seeks to destroy my relationship and union with Him, who is alone life eternal and can make my activity full of immortal fruit.But then it is a matter of entering a real battle, so that all our thoughts and ideas are rooted in Jesus and we really attain the stage where we abide in Him. Again and again we must fight so that our association with Jesus will not be broken by dreaming and absent-mindedness. Otherwise our days and our work will be without fruit; they will be in vain. And in the other life we will not be in His presence.
“Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” (Phil. 2: 12). “Fight the good fight of faith” (I Tim. 6: 12). We must call daily upon the victorious name of Jesus and proclaim its power over our inability to concentrate and our dreaming. As surely as Jesus has come as the Redeemer, He will redeem us to be disciples who abide in Him and fill our life and activity with divine life and fruit. Jesus is longing for us to be with Him, because He is yearning for our love. And a sign of true love is that we desire to be intimately united with the one we love in everything we do, say or think. If we love Jesus, we have only one wish, not to lose Him during the day, not to fall out of His love-and on the other hand to prove our love for Him by giving Him everything, even our thought-world so that it may come under His dominion.
Keep your heart with all vigilance; for from it flows the springs of life. (Prov. 4: 23)
Jesus is a true Bridegroom; this is His very nature. He wants to give us His love; but He is also waiting for us to return His love. Jesus is a true Bridegroom. His love is a jealous love. He wants you, your soul, completely. He is jealous when you give your love to other people and to other things. He is jealous when pay more attention to them, when you give them more time, more of yourself, than you give Him. Then He stands beside you, grieved. Then He is hurt and wounded, because He loves you so much.
Jesus is a true Bridegroom. He does not force you to love Him. He asks: “Will you give Me your love?”, and He gets what He wants when you do this. Only one thing will satisfy Him - your love. All else is too small for Him: that you believe in Him, that you obey Him, that you come to Him for forgiveness. He is not only your Physician who heals you. He is not only your Redeemer who delivers you from your bonds. He wants to be your Bridegroom, and as Bridegroom He gives you His great, His tender, His most intimate love. Now He is waiting for you to give Him your love. He who loves wants to be loved in return.
Because Jesus is the Bridegroom, He can be wounded if you take up self-chosen crosses, choosing the way of poverty and resolving to make sacrifices simply for ascetic reasons. Certainly He wants you to follow Him on the way of the cross. But His heart is filled with grief and sorrow if it is not love that impels you. You should not take the way of the cross for your own sanctification, but rather - as He repeatedly said while He was on earth - “For My sake you should lose your life, for My sake you should forsake houses, brethren . . .” Out of love for Him, out of love alone you should choose obedience, lowliness, humility and disgrace. Only the dedication which springs from love will make Him happy. Indeed, this is the only dedication which He will accept. Nothing else. All else is insufficient. Anything else would be more likely to wound Him, because it is simply pious deceit; we seem to be going His way, but it is really for our own sake.
Jesus, the Bridegroom, is the Man of Sorrows. He suffers to this present day. He is seeking a bride who will share with Him what is in His heart. His heart is filled not only with love, but also with suffering - past and present. He is seeking a bride who will really live out the bridal state, whose heart will beat with His, who will bear things with Him, who not only suffers through her own afflictions, but also suffers His afflictions with Him, who in reality enters into the fellowship of suffering with Him. Only she is a true bride who is concerned about His concerns - about the needs of His people and His Church and the things which hinder His dominion among the peoples.
For Him the bride is the soul who suffers with Him and who is prepared to do everything to alleviate His sufferings. She seeks ways through sacrifice and prayer and does her utmost to ensure that the things which trouble Him may be changed. She labors so that He may be honored where He is not now honored, that He may be feared where He is not now feared. She strives to lead back to God the people who are not living according to His commandments and statutes, and so she comforts His heart and makes Him happy. She spends her life for Him and suffers until she has loved souls home to Him by whom they can be saved, until people set themselves under His dominion and begin to love Him. Not until her Bridegroom is comforted will she be satisfied. The bride keeps asking Him: “How can I comfort You?”, and in the quietness the Bridegroom will tell her what grieves Him. She will go with Him to comfort Him.
Jesus is a true Bridegroom; this is His very nature. That is why He is not satisfied when we simply set ourselves under His dominion and give Him slavish obedience. He wants more - He wants our heart, our very hearts blood. As the Bridegroom, He asks: “How much am I worth to you? How much can you sacrifice for Me? Can you give Me your beloved children? Can you give Me father and mother and friends? Can you give Me your home and your native land out of love if I ask for these? Will you go anywhere I call you to serve, and lead to Me the souls for which I hunger? Can you sacrifice your honor, your strength, your longing to be loved, your deepest secret wishes for Me?”
Jesus is a true Bridegroom; this is His very nature. He waits for His bride. He does not seek to force love; it must be spontaneous. He knocks softly on the door. He waits until someone opens it. He stands behind the door and looks to see whether His bride will open up and come out to Him (Song of Solomon 5:2). His eyes follow her sadly if all day long she is busy and in a hurry, if she goes about everything quickly and vigorously and yet spiritually is becoming estranged from Him, because she is completely engrossed with her work and earthly business.
Jesus is a true Bridegroom; this is His very nature. His ardent concern is to impart His likeness to His bride so that she too may radiate divine beauty and be adorned with many virtues. He works with specials care, loving care for His bride. He guides her and leads her along paths of chastisement, for this will bring her to where His is. He dreams of the full beauty that shall be hers. He loves her too much to suffer her to have any “spots” or “wrinkles”, because she is His bride. Full of pride and joy, His loving eyes beholds her as though she were perfect. Through the power of His blood He, the Almighty, can bring her to the perfection of divine beauty.
Jesus is a true Bridegroom; this is His very nature. So He stands as a Protector besides His bride. He is intent upon protecting her from all who may want to harm her. He strives on her behalf. To be a bride means that one is no longer alone. It means that one has an intimate partner who lives for his bride, and to do everything that he can for her. So, Jesus, the Bridegroom, lives to do everything for Him bride, to help her in every situation, in every need, in every impossibility. She is no longer alone. Jesus is true Bridegroom; this is His very nature. He is waiting in heaven for the day when His bride will come to Him so that He can be united with her for ever. He seeks her in unending love.
I will betroth you to Me forever; I will betroth you to Me in righteousness and in justice, In steadfast love, and in mercy. I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness; And you shall know the Lord. (Hosea 2:19-20).