As I was reading today, I came across this quote and was greatly encouraged. Sometimes sanctification and growth is hard. It is easy to question why God requires us dying to ourselves. I love the picture that Elisabeth Elliot gives here. Dying to myself is still not easy but it is comforting to know that the Lord is at work and that He will finish the work in me that He has started. (Philippians 1:6) So often I demand to see the fruits of my "suffering" and "dying" and I forget this is not how our Lord works. I need to remember to "rejoice in seeing beyond results which are obvious" for "though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal." (2 Corinthians 4:16-18) It is in trusting God alone that I will have peace. Enjoy the quote...
"The growth of all living green things wonderfully represents the process of receiving and relinquishing, gaining and losing, living and dying. The seed falls into the ground, dies as the new shoot springs up. There must be a splitting and a breaking in order for a bud to form. The bud 'let's go' when the flower forms. The calyx lets go of the flower. The petals must curl up and die in order for the fruit to form. The fruit fall, splits, relinquishes the seed. The seed falls into the ground…
There is no ongoing spiritual life without this process of letting go. At the precise point where we refuse, growth stops. If we hold tightly to anything given to us, unwilling to let it go when the time comes to let it go or unwilling to allow it to be used as the Giver means it to be used, we stunt the growth of the soul.
It is easy to make a mistake here. 'If God gave it to me,' we say, 'it's mine. I can do what I want with it.' No. The truth is that it is ours to thank Him for and ours to offer back to Him, ours to relinquish, ours to lose, ours to let go of—if we want to find our true selves, if we want real Life, if our hearts are sent on glory.
Think of the self that God has given as an acorn. It is a marvelous little thing, a perfect shape, perfectly designed for its purpose, perfectly functional. Think of the grand glory of an oak tree. God's intention for us is '...the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.' Many deaths must go into our reaching that measure, many letting-goes. When you look at the oak tree, you don’t feel that the 'loss' of the acorn is a very great loss. The more you perceive God’s purpose in your life, the less terrible will the losses seem." (Elisabeth Elliot, Passion & Purity, pg. 163-164)
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