Watchfulness and Self-denial

“Make no thought for the morrow” (Matt. 6:34)1 - that is, no anxious thought - for this comes of distrust of God. But there is a thought for the morrow which is a holy carefulness: “A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself” (Prov. 22:3)2. Gathering clouds bespeak a coming storm. Watch and be ready for every storm: be it in your own heart, in the church, or in the world, provide against it by abiding in Christ; He is our hiding-place, our high tower into which the righteous runneth and is safe. “Watch ye, and pray, lest ye enter into temptation.”

Even when we have most of the consolations of Christ, and most of His approval, let us be on the watch, lest like the spouse in the Song, through the deceitfulness of the flesh, we leave the blessedness of tender communion and put ourselves to shame by “I sleep, but my heart waketh” (S. Sol. 5:2)3.

What love to the Thessalonians must Paul have had, who, though he so greatly delighted in his brethren’s fellowship, sent Timothy from Athens to Thessalonica, and was content to be left alone!

If a child of God pleases the flesh under colour of liberty, mistaking carnal liberty for spiritual, who can say how far he may go wrong? It is the self-denial of grace that is true liberty.

Christ measures our kindness to others, especially toward His members, not by the greatness of our gifts, but by our faith and self-denial.

When we see any servant of Christ lowly and self-denying, such we must esteem and revere. To great gifts of knowledge and utterance unaccompanied with lowliness, we pay the tax of admiration; but our esteem and reverence they cannot command.

The habit of denying self in little things will give us a vigour of spiritual life.

In looking out for opportunities of doing great things in the Lord’s cause, we lose the daily, hourly opportunities for little acts of self-denial which especially require the grace of Christ. To be crucifying self when no eye but that of God sees us, this is the most acceptable service to our Lord and Master.

That is the best watching and waiting which puts the keeping of our souls into the hands of God; for, “Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.” (Psalm 127:1.)4

Fußnoten

  1. Matthew 6: 34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.↩︎

  2. Proverbs 22: 3 A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself: but the simple pass on, and are punished.↩︎

  3. Song of Solomon: 2 I sleep, but my heart waketh: it is the voice of my beloved that knocketh, saying, Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled: for my head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night.↩︎

  4. Psalm 127: 1 (A Song of degrees for Solomon.) Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.↩︎