God has been teaching me the process of dying to self. We see this analogy in the growth and reproduction of plants. The following is an excerpt from Elisabeth Elliot's book, Passion and Purity:
"...The seed does not know what will happen. It only knows what is happening - the falling, the darkness, the dying...
...There is no ongoing spiritual life without this process of letting go. At the precise point where we refuse, growth stops...
...The more you perceive God's purposes in your life, the less terrible the losses seem..."
but, oh, how hard it is to let go and die.how hard it is to trust and not be concerned with the why and the how.
for me, right now, i want to know why. i want to know how. i want direction. i want to know what. i want to know where. i want to know who. i want to know. Jesus, i want to know!
and God whispers, "trust me. let go. die to yourself and follow me."
"If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his live will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it."
-- Matthew 16:24&25
“I realized that the deepest spiritual lessons are not learned by His letting us have our own way in the end, but by His making us wait, bearing with us in love and patience until we are able to honestly pray what He taught His disciples to pray: Thy will be done.”
-- Elisabeth Elliot
