Tuesday

Related Verses
Luke 1:53
53 The hungry He has filled with good things, and the rich He has sent away empty.

Phil. 3:13
13 Brothers, I do not account of myself to have laid hold; but one thing I do: Forgetting the things which are behind and stretching forward to the things which are before,

Psa. 81:10
10 I am Jehovah your God, Who brought you up out of the land of Egypt; Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.

Josh. 7:3-4
3 And they returned to Joshua and said to him, Not all the people need go up; let about two or three thousand men go up and strike Ai. Do not make all the people labor there, for the enemies are few.
4 So about three thousand men from the people went up there, but they fled before the men of Ai.

Rom. 8:28-29
28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.
29 Because those whom He foreknew, He also predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the Firstborn among many brothers;

Luke 18:17
17 Truly I say to you, Whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a little child shall by no means enter into it.

Psa. 139:17
17 And how precious are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them!

Related Reading
[Luke 1:53] shows us that God’s grace is reserved for one type of person—a hungry one. If a person comes to the meeting only for the purpose of observing and listening, he will not see anything or hear anything. If all that a person wants is some Bible knowledge, his real spiritual problems will not be solved. Only those with a pressing inward need and those who are determined to meet God will receive His blessing. We must realize that spiritual progress is based on our hunger…Those who hunger and thirst will be filled; they are the ones who are blessed [cf. Matt. 5:6]. (CWWN, vol. 37, p. 132) 

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Everything ordered by the Lord in our circumstances is intended to create a need in us and make us realize that we cannot overcome by past experience…We have to realize that God does not want us to have yesterday’s manna. With each new difficulty there comes a new need that we have never realized before…We cannot go on without new knowledge of the Lord and a new vision of Him. Whenever He brings us to our end and whenever we find ourselves crying, “I cannot make it!” our progress has begun. Then God is able to easily create a desire for Him in us. 

Thank God that everything we have is the result of His work; even the heart that seeks after Him comes from Him…There is a condition: we must be conscious of our weakness and inability as well as the hindrance and pride of the flesh. If we persist in our self-reliance, presume that we are already rich, and do not forget our Jericho victory, it will be impossible for God to give us a seeking heart even if He wants to. If we cannot forget our past victory, we will never make any progress…Past victory can never be our present strength. We should remember that God gives difficulties to us in order to dig more deeply in us so that He can fill us more with Himself. 

Second Kings 4 shows us an important spiritual principle. What did the woman and her sons have? They only had a pot of oil. This same pot of oil was later poured into many empty vessels. The little bit of oil that she had at the beginning was crucial. In the Bible oil represents the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit works only on those who already have the Spirit abiding in them. 

The widow’s problem was that she had too few vessels. Elisha told her, “Go, borrow thee vessels abroad of all thy neighbors, even empty vessels; borrow not a few. And when thou art come in, thou shalt shut the door upon thee and upon thy sons, and shalt pour out into all those vessels, and thou shalt set aside that which is full” (2 Kings 4:3-4). What did the woman do? “So she went from him, and shut the door upon her and upon her sons, who brought the vessels to her; and she poured out. And it came to pass, when the vessels were full, that she said unto her son, Bring me yet a vessel. And he said unto her, There is not a vessel more. And the oil stayed” (vv. 5-6). She had to borrow empty vessels—this speaks of the need for empty room within us for the Holy Spirit. She was to borrow not a few—this means the more the better. There should not be only one empty room but many empty rooms…The more empty spaces there are, the more fullness there will be. This is a principle which the Lord has shown us: spiritual progress is a matter of being continually emptied out and continually filled up. The work of the Holy Spirit is not “once empty then forever full” but “always empty and always full.” Therefore,…do not think that as long as we have been emptied once, we will not need any more emptying. The work of the cross in us is ever-increasing and ever-deepening. (CWWN, vol. 37, pp. 135-136, 138-139) 

Further Reading: CWWN, vol. 37, chs. 22—23