Why The LORD Deals With Us

The Cross is a painful process, but it is a blessed issue;

And those amongst us who may have had the greatest agony along this line would, I believe, testify that what it has brought to us of the knowledge and riches of the Lord Jesus has made all the suffering worthwhile.

So the work of the Lord for us and the work of the Lord in us, by the Cross, is only intended in the Divine thought to make room for the Lord Jesus.

The brazen altar of the Tabernacle, as that of the Temple, was a very big altar.

Yes, the altar has to be a big one; there has to be a big place for Christ Crucified.

He is to fill all things and He is to be the fullness of all things, and there is going to be no room for us in the end.

Does that strike you with dismay?

Surely not.

So the Cross, the work of redemption through that Cross, has for its explanation just this, that Christ may be all, and in all; that in all things He may have the preeminence.

This, then, is the explanation of our experiences why the Lord deals with us as He does;

Why believers go through the experiences that they do go through;

Why they go through things that no one else seems called upon to go through;

Why sometimes they almost envy unbelievers the easy time that so many of them have.

This explains the Lord’s dealings with Israel in the wilderness.

Even after their deliverance from Egypt’s bondage and tyranny, there was heart-break and agony.

Why this chastening?

In the wilderness they still hark back to Egypt.

The work the Lord is doing in them is in order that He may be everything in and to them.

If He cuts off their natural supplies, it is only to show what their heavenly supplies are.

If He cuts off their natural power, it is that they may come to know the power of the heavens.

Whatever He may take them out of or lead them into is with a view to taking them out of themselves and that He Himself may be all, and in all.

This is the explanation of our difficulties.

The Lord knows how best to deal with each one of us, and He does not use standardized methods.

He deals with you in one way and with me in another.

He knows how to lead us into experiences which are most calculated to bring us to where the Lord is all, and in all.

~T. Austin Sparks~