Then you may ask why have you, My children, to have tribulation if I have overcome the world.
My overcoming was never, you know, for Myself, but for you, for My children. Each temptation, each difficulty, I overcome as it presented itself.
The powers of evil were strained to their utmost to devise means to break Me. They failed, but how they failed was known only to Me, and to My Father, Who could read My undaunted Spirit. The world, even My own followers, would see a Lost Cause. Reviled, spat upon, scourged, they would deem Me conquered. How could they know My Spirit was free, unbroken, unharmed?
And so, as I had come to show man God, I must show him God unconquered, unharmed, untouched by evil and its power. Man could not see My Spirit untouched, risen above these Earth furies and hates, into the Secret Place of the Father. But man could see My Risen Body, and learn by that, that even the last attempt of man had been powerless to touch Me.
Take heart from that, for you must share My tribulations. If evil is to leave you unchallenged you must be evil. If evil challenges you, if trials press sore, it is because you are on My side, and, as My friends, exposed to the hate of evil.
But be of good cheer. You walk with Me. I conquered evil at every point, though man could only see it proved, beyond all doubt, when I rose from the dead. And in My conquering Power you walk un-harmed to-day.
Suffer to Save. - November 24
Take each day's happenings as work you can do for Me. In that Spirit a blessing will attend all you do. Offering your day's service thus to Me, you are sharing in My Life-work, and therefore helping Me to save my world.
You may not see it, but the power of vicarious sacrifice is redemptive beyond man's power of understanding here on earth.
The Heavenly Beggar. - November 25
Behold, I stand at the door and knock. - Rev. 3:20.
Oh, ponder again these words and learn from them My great humility.
There is that gracious invitation, too, for those who yearn to realize a joy, a rest, a satisfaction they have never found in the world and its pursuits. To them the pleading answer to their quest is "Come to Me and I will give you rest."
But to those who do not feel their need of Me, who obstinately reject Me, who shut the doors of their hearts so that I may not enter, to those I go, in tender, humble longing. Even when I find all closed, all barred, I stand a Beggar, knocking, knocking, The Heavenly Beggar in His Great Humility.
Never think of those who have shut you out, or forgotten you, that now they must wait, you have no need of them. No! remember that, the Heavenly Beggar, and learn of Me, humility.
Learn too the value of each man's happiness, and peace and rest, to Me, his God; and learn, and learning, pray to copy, the Divine Unrest until a soul finds rest and peace in Me.
My Beauty. - November 26
The prophet realized the Truth of My later saying, "He that hath ears to hear; let him hear", which might be rendered "he that hath eyes to see; let him see."
The God who was to be born upon Earth was not to be housed in a body so beautiful that men would follow and adore for the beauty of His Countenance.
No! He was to be as one whom the world would despise, but, to the "seeing" eye, the Spirit that dwelt in that body should be so beautiful as to lack nothing. "Yet when we shall see Him, there is no Beauty that we should desire Him."
Pray for the "seeing" eye, to see the Beauty of My Character, of My Spirit. Nay, more, as faith saw the Beauty of the Godhead in One who had no form or comeliness, so pray to have that faith to see the Beauty of My Love in My dealings with you, in My actions. Till, in what the world will distort into cruelty and harshness (the discipline that is the hallmark of discipleship), you with the eyes of faith, will see ALL that you could desire.
Know Me. Talk to Me. Let Me talk to you, so that I may make clear to your loving hearts what seems mysterious now and purposeless ("having no form nor comeliness.")
Not Thwarted. - November 27
Not our wills but Thine, O Lord.
Man has so misunderstood Me in this. I want no will laid grudgingly upon My Altar. I want you to desire and love My Will, because therein lies your happiness and Spirit-rest.
Whenever you feel that you cannot leave the choice to Me, then pray, not to be able to accept My Will, but to know and love Me more. With that knowledge, and the Love, will come the certainty that I know best, and that I want only the best for you and yours.
How little those know Me who think I wish to thwart them. How often I am answering their own prayers in the best and quickest way.
The Way of the Spirit. - November 28
Jesus, we come to Thee with Joy.
The Joy of meeting Me should more and more fill your lives. It will. Your lives must first of all be narrowed down, more and more, into an inner circle life with Me (the three of us), and then, as that friendship becomes more and more engrossing, more and more binding, then, gradually, the circle of your interests will widen.
For the present do not think of it as a narrow life. I have My Purpose, My Loving Purpose, in cutting you away from other work and interests, for the time.
To work from large interests and a desire for great activities and world movements, to the inner circle life with Me, is really the wrong way. That is why so often, when, through all these activities and interests, a soul finds Me, I have to begin our Friendship by cutting away the ties that bind it to the outer and wider circle. When it has gained strength, and learned its lesson in the inner circle, it can then widen its life, working this time from within out, taking then to each contact, each friendship, the inner circle influence.
And this is to be your way of life.
This is The Way of the Spirit. Man so often misunderstands this.
When Two Agree. - November 29
If two of you shall agree.
I am the Truth. Every word of Mine is true. Every promise of Mine shall be fulfilled.
First, "gathered together in My Name", bound by a common loyalty to Me, desirous only of doing My Will.
Then, when this is so, I am present too, a self-invited guest, and when I am there and one with you, voicing the same petition, making your demands Mine, then it follows the request is granted.
But what man has failed perhaps to realize is all that lies behind the words. For two to agree about the wisdom of a request, to be certain it should be granted, and will be granted (if it is My Will and should be granted), is not the same as two agreeing to pray that request.
From Self to God. - November 30
The Eternal God is thy refuge. - Deut. 33:27.
A Place to flee to, a sanctuary. An escape from misunderstanding, from your 'Self'. You can get away from others into the quiet of your own Being, but from yourself, from the sense of your failure, your weakness, your sins and shortcomings, whither can you flee?
To the Eternal God your refuge. Till in His Immensity you forget your smallness, meanness, limitations.
Till the relief of safety merges into Joy of appreciation of your refuge, and you absorb the Divine, and absorbing, gain strength to conquer.
JAH