The One To Whom GOD Will Commit Himself

                                                                                 
The LORD Jesus did come, and He did come to show in Himself the kind of person to whom GOD would commit Himself, to whom GOD would let go Himself.

It is a tremendous thing for such as GOD to let himself go to someone else, commit Himself, so to speak, to put Himself into the hands of another with perfect assurance and content and say, "I can trust Myself with that one, I need not be reserved where they are concerned.

I can give them My secrets, I can open up to them My hidden things, I can trust them with blessing, with power, with scope for service, ways of usefulness:

I know quite well self will not come in there; it is safe".

Who of us could say that of ourselves? I cannot; I do not think you can.
 
But what leads to this?

Is it not our deep, agonizing concern before GOD that He will be able to commit Himself to us that we might be the more to His glory and more used by Him?

Does that not concern you?

Do you, with me, desire above all other things that the LORD should be able to be with us and to make us a blessing and to use us and to open the way before us, and not all the time to have to say, "I must go steady there, they are taking it into their own hands to get glory for themselves. 

They have become masters instead of servants"?

Are you concerned about that?

If you are not, of course this word has nothing for you, but if so, surely this is a word to our hearts.

How will the LORD commit Himself?

The LORD Jesus is the great example. He came to show, for GOD was with Him.

That was the testimony of the apostles. He "went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with Him" (Acts 10:38).

Oh, that is what we are after in our hearts, not the using, not the fame, not the popularity, the publicity, no, but just that God should get glory and have His way.

He puts His finger upon the secret - the single eye, purity of heart.
 
I am not, for a moment, questioning your motives.

I cannot question my own motives as I know them on the surface.

You would all say, "All that I am and all I have is for the Lord; it is at the Lord's disposal. I do not want to have any secondary interest at all." 

We are all like that, but so often we are our own greatest enemies, and I am not speaking to you about the things of which you may be conscious.

We shall, of course, have to face things which come into this realm as we know them; as we are able to discern them, we have to face them quite seriously.

But I know this, that The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? (Jer. 17:9)

Deceitful - and we really do not always know our own motives, 

And the motive is only manifest sometimes when the LORD has given us a little extra rope of liberty and blessing,

And then we begin to be very pleased with it and with ourselves, instead of humbly, broken-heartedly, going down before the LORD in worship that such as we, could ever be considered in the realm of His using.

It is what is there. That is why I speak of circumcision of heart, getting right down inside.
 
Well, the opposite to singleness, of course, is dividedness, 

And you know how often the LORD Jesus, when He was here in the flesh, used that word "cannot",

And how often He used the phrase that is here in our portion: "No man does this or that to things." "Men do not put new wine into old bottles" (Matt. 9:17) — two opposite things; 

Men do not put a piece of new cloth upon an old garment (Matt. 9:16) - two different things.

Ye cannot serve God and mammon (Matt. 6:24). 

So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple. Luke 14:33
These "cannots" just touch this: there can be no two things where the LORD is concerned, only one thing, singleness of eye.

Pride and jealousy are only forms of self-interest.

When David returned from slaying the giant, the women came out and sang, "Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands" (1 Sam. 18:7).

Saul said, "They have ascribed unto David ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed but thousands 

And Saul eyed David from that day and forward", eyed him with an evil eye.

He was jealous, and I think it was David's singleness of eye that was the great characteristic of his life.

~T. Austin Sparks~