Today's Daily Bread
Miserable Success
“In whatever a man does without God, he must fail miserably—or
succeed more miserably,” wrote George MacDonald (1824–1905), a Scottish
novelist, poet, and Christian minister. This intriguing statement is
often cited by modern speakers and writers and appears in MacDonald’s
book Unspoken Sermons.
MacDonald was dealing with the difficult subject of a Christian’s
self-denial and how we are to apply this teaching of Jesus: “If anyone
desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross
daily, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it,
but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it” (Luke 9:23-24).
Rather than merely trying to suppress our natural desires, MacDonald
said that true self-denial means “we must see things as [Christ] saw
them, regard them as He regarded them; we must take the will of God as
the very life of our being . . . . We are no more to think, ‘What should
I like to do?’ but ‘What would the Living One have me do?’”
Getting only what we want is succeeding miserably. True success is
found in “losing” our lives for Jesus’ sake and finding them again full
and free in His will.
More like the Master I would live and grow,
More of His love to others I would show;
More self-denial, like His in Galilee,
More like the Master I long to ever be. —Gabriel
More of His love to others I would show;
More self-denial, like His in Galilee,
More like the Master I long to ever be. —Gabriel
The spirit of humility and self-denial precedes a deeper and closer walk with God.
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