AS I reread these words we have been looking at in this chapter “The Way Up Is Down,” many thoughts come to mind. Grateful thoughts, that someone took the time to point these things out to me and walked me through them in helping me understand them so many years ago. Weary thoughts, that I need to keep being reminded of these invaluable lessons even today, so many miles down the road in my pilgrim’s journey. And sad thoughts, that so many have never been exposed nor fully understand what these words really convey, and thus miss the blessings contained in this wise instruction. It is an eminent comfort and encouragement to know that even our failures and shortcomings can be turned to blessings in the hands of our loving and all-powerful Father.
Though I fall, I will not be utterly cast down (Psa. 37:24)
Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning (Psa. 30:5b).
BELOW is the conclusion to this important chapter, and I pray these musings are helpful for you in learning that truly, The Way Up Is Down.
In the inexorable blessings of Christ,
Joe
Neh. 8:10, Isa 30:15, Jas 1:2
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Chapter 55—“The Way Up Is Down” – Part 4, …conclusion
Failure Utilized
These are some of the very conditions that the Father uses to prepare us to see and enter into that which He has already given in the Lord Jesus. There must be this drastic revelation of self, by the most effective means suited to the individual—all in the realm of personal failure.
The agonizing downward process brings us from simply believing on Him at Calvary, to living in Him in heaven—from substitution, to personal identification. As lost sinners we were prepared by the Spirit to see and accept the Lord Jesus as our Substitute; as defeated believers we have to be prepared by the Spirit to see and abide in the Lord Jesus as our Life. There is no alternative, and He has been faithfully and quietly carrying it out all through the fruitless and failure-ridden years. “Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you” (1 Peter 4:12).
When the Father has us prepared by means of Romans Seven, He opens the liberating truths of Romans Eight—but not until! It is first, “Oh, wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” and then, “I thank God through Jesus Christ, our Lord” (Rom. 7:24, 25). Then, “Come, and let us return unto the Lord; for he hath torn, and he will heal us; for he hath smitten, and he will bind us up” (Hosea 6:1). “Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it” (I Thess. 5:24).
