February 8

“To examine self is to be like a man who should spend his time in examining his empty larder instead of going to the market for a supply to fill it.  No wonder such Christians seem to be starving to death in the midst of all the fullness there is for them in Christ.  They never see that fullness, for they never look at it; and again I repeat that the thing we look at is the thing we see.”  Hannah Whitall Smith, “The God of All Comfort” p. 142

It was the middle of the night and my head was hurting so bad from the flu that I didn’t want to move. All I could focus on was the pain.  But then Hannah’s words came to mind and I turned my thoughts to Christ.  The Lord is my Shepherd.  The Lord is my Comforter.  I fell quickly back to sleep.  I awoke again an hour or so later, still in pain.  Again I tore my thoughts away from the pain and put them on Christ and again I fell asleep.   When I awoke a third time in even more pain because I’d been clenching my teeth I found myself feeling forsaken.  Again I put my thoughts on Christ, praising him for His care even though my body was in pain.  In times past I would have never been able to separate my self (the flesh) from my true self (the spirit).  This would have led me into discouragement, which is really just unbelief in disguise.  Hannah had been speaking about the fallacy of examining self as a means of spiritual growth because when we look at self we can’t be looking at Christ at the same time. But as I discovered, this also applies to all of life. How much better it is to examine the Lord, and let Him fill our larder!

“For we are the true circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God, and glory in Christ Jesus, and put no confidence in the flesh.”  Philippians 3:3