“Not ourselves, but Christ Jesus” (II. Cor. iv. 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 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.