PARENTHOOD
a divine stewardship

God Leading Men to Their End

we as believing parents must grasp in all of our living and especially in relation to our care of our children a basic realization-without the Lord we can do nothing (cf. John 15:5). We have repeatedly stressed in this publication that the task assigned to us by our God and Father-to shape and mold, educate and train, and cherish and nourish our children-is a very particular and awesome task. It is not something that we can carry out lightly or superficially according to our own "wisdom and knowledge." We need the wisdom of our Father God Who alone knows how to adequately shepherd us and our children. However, though we acknowledge our need of guidance and blessing, in fact we often neglect the Lord in our actual practice. The source of such incongruous behavior is the subtlety of the self.

The self is a very illusive entity. We can see something of its deceitfulness in the experience of the apostle Peter before the Lord's death and resurrection. As recorded in Matthew 16:15-26, Peter became full of a feeling of self-importance after he had given a very excellent response to the Lord's question, "Who do you say that I am?" Simon Peter had answered unhesitatingly and accurately, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." But almost immediately Peter had an opposing reaction to the Lord's announcement of His impending death and resurrection. Peter began to rebuke the Lord saying, "This shall by no means happen to You!" The Lord's reply is enlightening: "Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me, for you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of men. Then Jesus said to His disciples, If anyone wants to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me." This indicates that our slf is fully aligned with the subtle enemy of God. We desperately need to see the untrustworthiness of self, reject it utterly, and follow the Lord wholeheartedly!

Brothers, God now has no other goal than to bring you to an utter end. God wants you to be disappointed about your self, to lose hope in your self, and to confess that you are incurable and worse than anyone else. God wants you to know the self. How many times in the past have you aspired to victory, yet always failed in the end! It was for no other reason than this: God wanted to bring you to know yourself. You mourned, struggled, strove, sought, prayed, worked, labored diligently, and used hundreds and thousands of other means in the hope that you could overcome sin and be sanctified completely. But you invariably failed. Although sometimes you might have had a small amount of success, it never lasted. Although you did whatever you could to maintain your success, your success took wings like a bird. You thought your struggle to succeed was unsuccessful because you were worse than everyone else. Brothers, these experiences were for one reason only: God wants to help you to know your self. You fail not because you are too bad, but because you are not bad enough. Brothers, you should know that to mourn is your self, to struggle and try hard is your self, to pursue prayer is your self, and to work and labor diligently is also your self. It is all your self that is working, and it is all for your self. How much of it is in complete dependence upon God? How many really know that they are incurable and as a result depend on God? By struggling and seeking in such a way, what are you really after? Is it not something for the self? Yes, you are seeking victory over sin and evil, and you are seeking sanctification, but what are they for? Is it not for the self to be happier, more glorified, and more boastful? If you have not reached the point where you are fully aware of the weakness and deceitfulness of the self, God will still allow you to stumble and fail. This makes you realize that you are powerless and that you do not deserve any honor or glory.

Brothers, God wants us to be in union with Him, relying on Him, carrying out His will, and giving Him the glory in everything. If you do not know the true character of the self and think that the self is good and capable, naturally, you will not be able to depend on God or give Him the glory. Naturally you will be self-confident and self-glorying. Even until today, you still do not know how weak the self is. That is why God allows you to fail again and again. Every failure is His indication that you are weak. But you would not believe it. You are not disappointed at your self but are still full of expectation. You think that the last failure was because you exerted too little effort and that if you exerted more energy next time, you would succeed. But you have failed so much already! There have been so many ups and downs with you! But you still do not know how weak you are. You still cannot receive the lesson God wants to teach. Rather, you are still planning to make a final endeavor to gain a final victory.

After experiencing so many failures, you still do not know how to be completely and helplessly disappointed. You still do not know how to forsake your self efforts and cast yourself completely into God's hand. You still may not know how to trust in Him by stopping your own scheming and managing while, at the same time, not having any knowledge of what to do. Since you have not learned your lesson, greater and more numerous failures must come upon you before you will know the self. Brothers, until you cease your own working, you should not expect God to deliver you.

(continued on page 2)