What shall I say?

Receiving one's self in the fires of sorrow is a title of devotional I read today in "My Utmost for His Highest" by Oswald Chambers.

"And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’?

But for this purpose I have come to this hour.

Father, glorify your name."

~John 12:27-28a

 

Here is what it said, that I want to share as it relates to what I thought about just 

recently:

 

My attitude as a saint to sorrow and difficulty is not to ask that they may be prevented, but to ask that I may preserve the self God created me to be through every fire of sorrow. Our Lord received Himself in the fire of sorrow, He was saved not from the hour, but out of the hour.

 

We say that there ought to be no sorrow, but there is sorrow, and we have to receive ourselves in its fires. If we try and evade sorrow, refuse to lay our account with it, we are foolish. Sorrow is one of the biggest facts in life; it is no use saying sorrow ought not to be. Sin and sorrow and suffering are, and it is not for us to say that God has made a mistake in allowing them.

 

Sorrow burns up a great amount of shallowness, but it does not always make a man better. Suffering either gives me my self or it destroys my self. You cannot receive your self in success, you lose your head; you cannot receive your self in monotony, you grouse. The way to find your self is in the fires of sorrow. Why it should be so is another matter, but that it is so is true in Scriptures and in human experience. You always know the man who has been through the fires of sorrow and received himself, you are certain you can go to him in trouble and find that he has ample leisure for you. If a man has not been through the fires of sorrow, he is apt to be contemptuous, he has no time for you. If you receive yourself in the fires of sorrow, God will make you nourishment for other people.

 

Oh Father, may I not lose my head or grouse, but may I find and receive myself in the fires of sorrow, so I can be nourishment for others.

 

I ask that I may preserve the self You created me to be through every fire of sorrow.

 

What shall I say? Father, save me from this hour? But for this purpose I have come to this hour.

 

Keep CZECHING IN!