Being and Doing – 6 January – Self-Surrender

This is not the mere being good, it is the definite surrender of oneself and one’s life at any cost.  I feel God has been calling you to the highest point of union with His Divine Life, and you must aim to be very true in following.  And that following is not in the outer actions of your life, though they are the bulwarks and stays of it, but it is in the inner surrender of the soul, the willingness that self should suffer, be buffeted, cut down, cease to exist:- no longer ‘I like,’ but that God wills it, that life that has no will but to respond unhesitatingly to the Divine Will.  One by one everything must be offered to God.  The dying self offers it to God a thousand times, and then shrinks back and takes to itself that which it has offered.

But God loves us too well, and is too true with us, not to oblige us to be true with him.

HARIET MONSELL

BRING no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination to me;
the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies,
I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting.
Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth:
they are a trouble unto me;
I am weary to bear them.
And when you spread forth your hands,
I will hide mine eyes from you:
yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear :
your hands are full of blood.

“Wash you, make you clean;
put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes;
cease to do evil;
learn to do well;
seek judgment,
relieve the oppressed,
judge the fatherless,
plead for the widow.

ISAIAH 50v13-17

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These quotes are from ‘Being and Doing’ A selection of helpful thoughts from various authors arranged for daily reading.

Collected by Constance M Whishaw and first published in 1908 for members of the Being and Doing Guild whose object is to do all they can for the relief of suffering and misery.

Most of the writers are 19th Century Christians from Britain and Europe who were committed to living their faith through deeds as well as words – Being AND Doing.

For many years these words have kept me company and encouraged me on the journey of faith.  I hope they will encourage others also.