August 12

Not ourselves, but Christ Jesus — 2 Cor 4:5

Your Christian influence, your reputation as a worker for God, and your standing among your brethren, may be an idol to which you must die, before you can be free to live for Him alone.

If you have ever noticed the type on a printed page, you must have seen that the little i has always a dot over it, and it is that dot that elevates it above the other letters in the line.

Now, each us is a little i, and over every one of us there is a little dot of self–importance, self–will, self–interest, self–confidence, self–complacency, or something to which we cling and for which we contend, which just as surely reveals self–life as if it were a mountain of real importance.

This i is a rival of Jesus Christ, and the enemy of the Holy Ghost, and of our peace and life, and therefore God has decreed its death, and the Holy Spirit, with His flaming sword is waiting to destroy it, that we may be able to enter through the gates and come to the Tree of Life. Lord, crowd me out by Thy fulness even as the glory of the Lord left no room for Moses in the Tabernacle.