He without anything is more than all without Him

"God, and all that he has made, is not more than God without any thing that he has made...He is enough without the creature, but the creature is not anything without him. It is therefore better to enjoy him without anything else, than to enjoy everything else without him."
- William Secker

comprehended in Christ

"When we see that the whole sum of our salvation, and every single part of it, are comprehended in Christ, we must beware of deriving even the minutes portion of it from any other quarter.
If we seek salvation, we are taught by the very name of Jesus that he possesses it; if we seek any other gifts of the Spirit, we shall find them in his unction; strength in his government; purity in his conception; indulgence in his nativity, in which he was made like us in all respects, in order that he might learn to sympathise with us: if we seek redemption, we shall find it in his passion; acquittal in his condemnation; remission of the curse in his cross; satisfaction in his sacrifice; purification in his blood; reconciliation in his descent to hell; mortification of the flesh in his sepulchre; newness of life in his resurrection; immortality also in his resurrection; the inheritance of a celestial kingdom in his entrance into heaven; protection, security, and the abundant supply of all blessings, in his kingdom; secure anticipation of judgment in the power of judging committed to him.
...since in him all kinds of blessings are treasured up, let us draw a full supply from him, and none from any other quarter."
- John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion. II.XVI.19

Jesus didn't have children - does that mean something?

Last night there were questions stirring in my mind about covenants, families and children…God works through families…at least, He did…does He still? …What is the significance of the New Testament biological family? It’s quite important, but is it the same as it was in the Old Testament? Maybe it is not…

This morning, I had one helpful thought: Jesus did not have children. So I stirred that in and dished out a few paragraphs of thoughts:

A promise of blessing was made to Abraham and his “offspring” (which Paul says refers to Christ, Gal. 3:16). During the Old Testament the blessing was transferred through the physical offspring - a physical offspring through which ultimately Christ would come. But after Jesus Christ was born of the Virgin Mary, in the line of Abraham and of David, he himself had no children. Instead, “to all who received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God - who were born not of the will of man, nor of the will of the flesh, but of God.” (John 1) After Jesus completed His earthly work and inaugurated His kingdom with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the promise of blessing was announced both to the Jews and to those who were far off “whom the Lord our God will call” (Acts 2).

In Christ and the New Testament, those things which were physically foreshadowed in the Old Testament were spiritually fulfilled - the spiritual reality being more real than the physical reality had been. For example, the physical sacrifices of the Old Testament were fulfilled with the final sacrifice of Christ, which was both physical and spiritual, and through which now believers “offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”

Is it not the same with the idea of offspring? The physical generations of the Jews, to whom the law and the promises came, reached the fruition of its purpose in the generation of Jesus Christ, which was both physical and spiritual, and through whom all believers in Christ are now the spiritual children of God.

Echoes of my End

My Lord Jesus, coming soon, I have thought lately on what it will be like to see you, since I have not seen you but tasted many of your gifts which are but glimmers of your sweetness. Oh what shall it be unto my soul to taste and see you in your glory?

It will be at once like lying down my weary self upon a pillowed softness, sinking into sweet and restful sleep,

and like waking on a summer morning with sunshine streaming in the open window, breezes bringing scents of dewy grass and sounds of singing birds, heart thrilling with eagerness to meet the cheerful day...

like rest and like awakening at once it will be to see you.

It will be something like that irresistible awfulness felt standing in the ocean surf as its thick waves rush with foaming crests and wash with deep, wet power over me, leaving me almost breathless,

and like the solemn stillness of entering a forest glade at noon day when all is quiet, and sunshine downward streams through dappling leaves and gladdens the earth's tender grass

for your presence is at once terribly glorious and unspeakably sweet.

It will be like standing on a mountain with the forest, plains and rivers stretching on forever below, all given to my view, heart and eyes stretching to take in all the vastness

and like gazing at a tiny flower with its bright and gorgeous petals, fuzzy center, glistening stamen, focused concentration with fascination at its perfection.

for you are at once infinitely great and precisely perfect

It will be like the sound of great, sweet music, as when a mighty choir joins with flawless harmony in joyful songs; like the thrilling, dance-calling melodies of fiddles and flutes, and the songs of birds and the laughter of children, and the terrifying rumble of thunder, like those certain lovely chords of instrument or voice that strike the soul beyond the ear and make it swell with yearning

and it will be like the utter silence of a winter evening, when snow lies white and sparkling cold beneath the silver moonlight, or of a solemn, empty chapel - that awesome quietness

both the sounds and the silences are echoes of you, my Maker - oh to hear your voice!

It will be like coming home, with all the fondness of belonging and precious long familiarity - for you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations - you are the true father, brother, friend of whom all earthly relations are but ever-faulty pictures.

and it will be like stepping onto a far distant dream-shore, filled with new sights, sounds and smells that dazzle and delight the senses - for you are beyond imagination

like dearest home and wildest dream, both for which my heart does ache with longing - so shall your presence be to me.

And my soul shall be satisfied with you, as when my earthly tongue is satisfied with the first nectar-dripping bite of summer's sweet fruit, or with thick sliced bread, spread warm with butter, or with the coolness of water or the savor of fresh-salted meat, well roasted

Yet it will also be like the all-distracting hunger that comes when I am famished, and am allured by a delicious scent
for you shall be so lovely to my soul that I shall with one glimpse be more satisfied than ever I was before, yet at the same time more famished than ever before, longing for a million, trillion centuries more to taste the sweetness of yourself, and - what joy - I shall not as with earthly food grow full and heavy with those things on which I feed, but will grow ever and ever with capacities for continual satisfaction in you and continual hunger for more of you. Sweet hope - oh my soul taste this past the shadowy crumbs that thrill your earthly tongue.

Why, Lord Jesus, do I so oft forget that all earth's gifts are echoes, shadows, flickers of your self, your sweet majesty, Maker and Redeemer of all - oh why do I forget? Ever hold before my eyes the promise that my life is hid in you and that my one glad end is to behold you and be like you. I would eagerly await Your coming - You who are my all in all.

Yet I must stop, consider how it is that I who long despised you, rebelled against your rightful rule, loved self and the fast-rotting pleasures of sin and was utterly damnable for all my evils, whorings, idol-worship - how is it that I should be brought to expect the enjoyment of eternal pleasures at your right hand.

For I - Lord Jesus!...now I weep - I think on what I did deserve and all those mercy-given foretastes of what it is like to be separated from you.

It would be like the aching loneliness of being left out, as when all the children are laughing together in their play and I am seated alone to the side because they do not know me or care for my company, or as when the family is gathered around the fragrant dinner table and I lie sick abed in the next room, unable to rise or to partake in the meal because of my sickness.

and it will be like the squeezing terror of being trapped in a dark closet, hot and stifling with no one in the house to hear my bangings, cryings and open the door, and like being submerged too long in water, longing for air and fearing to drown, not breathing, lungs bursting, burning anguish…

like being both alienated outside and trapped inside will it be to be separated from you

Oh my anguish! I cannot write these things - they are too painful!

Yet these are tastes of what my sin deserved. How is it now that I am brought to hope in you, expect a joyful end?

For though you are altogether lovely, perfect, beloved by God the Father and one with Him, and had enjoyed from all eternity a whole and perfect fellowship that outshines all precious earthly ties. And though you had created us to reflect, enjoy your glory in a small but lovely way, as you had always done with your Father in a great and lovely way, we utterly despised this blessed purpose and sought to be our own god…insulted, despised, rejected, hated you - we wanted nothing of you, and how just you would have been to give us what we wanted, now and forever - separation from you. It was not only what we blindly sought, but all we deserved. Justice demanded that our crime receive its payment.

…Were you not happy in the bosom of the Father, Lord Jesus?

…Were you not content to forever behold His face, without us?

…Were you not free to damn us and uphold the glory we’d disdained?

…Were you not happy? Were you not free?

Why then, why - this garb of naked infant flesh, this holy, yet humiliating human life, this bearing of a bloody cross - and the cry “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”?

Forsaken by the Father? No!!! The horror is too dark for words. It was our rebellion that cried for separation from God. We did not care! We did not know what we had forfeited! We deserved the hellish darkness, lonely burning. Not you, Lord Jesus, not you, who knew and loved the Father, were known and loved by Him.

But here, forsaken altogether, you bore our sin - rebellion, idol-worship - all that deserved to be cast out of God’s presence you became, and thus you were cut off from His presence yourself…

…That we might be saved.

Jesus!

When I think upon the sweet hope of your coming and all the foretastes given me by grace, let me not forget how dearly these were purchased for me.

Remind me of the loveliness of your humiliation and the greatness of your sacrifice.

And this, Lord Jesus, in itself - that you are the Lamb slain for my sin - is the one thing that will make you loveliest of all before my blood-bought, wondering eyes on the day you come.

My love, I long to stand before you, trembling, smiling, hearing the voice that thrills my heart beyond all others say, "Enter into the joy of your Lord."

that Name

you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. - Mat. 1:21

Blessed be the Lord,
who daily bears us up;
God is our salvation - Psalm 68:19

Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost - John 17:11-12

... May the name of the God of Jacob protect you! - Psalm 20:1

Jesus
Long had I heard that holy Name adored
Repeated often in the gospel story
But now to know its meaning - 'tis the Lord
Who is salvation - this my hope and glory.
- AFC

love Him or die

I must love Christ or my soul will die.

"Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me....If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.
... As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love."

Loving Christ is not my option; it is my life. Ought I not then tremble when my love for Him grows dim or cold? Ought I not cry out for mercy lest I die?

Thanks be to God that the Word which commands "Keep yourselves in the love of God" is addressed to those who are "kept by Jesus Christ" and promises that nothing "can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

A Widow for Three Days

"Thus says the Lord:
“Where is your mother's certificate of divorce,
with which I sent her away?
Or which of my creditors is it
to whom I have sold you?
Behold, for your iniquities you were sold,
and for your transgressions your mother was sent away."
- Isaiah 50:1

"“If a man divorces his wife
and she goes from him
and becomes another man's wife,
will he return to her?
Would not that land be greatly polluted?
You have played the whore with many lovers;
and would you return to me?
declares the Lord.
- Jeremiah 3:1

"Or do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage. Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress. Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead..." - Romans 7:1-4

I saw more clearly today yet another reason for the death of Christ.
Israel was in spiritual adultery and had broken the covenant with God her Husband.
And could he take her back? Would not His righteousness be defiled? He held it not righteous for men He had created to take a divorced as a bride. How then, could the bride of Christ be a divorced woman? But the church stood as a divorced woman. She had broken the first covenant; she was an adulteress - ruined among her worthless lovers. And while her husband lived she could not remarry. Therefore, she must be made a widow.

And so her estranged Husband took on flesh, that he might die.
She had broken the old covenant, and so He did away with it...

"This cup is the new covenant in my blood"

And the church was three days a widow.

Then He arose. Israel's husband had died that she might belong to another - to Him who was raised from the dead. He was delivered to death for her sins and raised to life for her justification....and He entered into a new covenant with her.

The marriage awaits. It will be between two who died as one to a broken Old Covenant and live to be forever united under a better New Covenant.

And the rest is too precious for words...

"...let me hear it"

HE

O you who dwell in the gardens, with companions listening for your voice; let me hear it.

SHE

Make haste, my beloved, and be like a gazelle or a young stag on the mountains of spices.

- Song of Solomon 8:13-14

Here Christ beckons His beloved to let Him hear her voice. She is in the garden, where they have before communed. It is a good place; she is with companions, and here their fellowship is sweet. But Christ desires the believer to call out to Him, to speak to Him. Hear how winsome are His words: O you who dwell in the gardens, let me hear your voice. How often would he bid us come away from our companions and speak to Him alone. He longs to hear His beloved’s voice. Oh believer! Does this not kindle holy warmth within your soul? Christ would hear my voice! His heart melts with love and longing for me! Would that we would ever cry, “Jesus, make haste to come to me!” Would that we might ever long for His presence as He does for ours!

The bride hears her Beloved, and her heart is stirred. Can you not see her in the garden? She hears the sweet command: “let me hear it” and turns to hasten to the clearing at the garden’s edge that looks toward the mountains. Across the valley she calls: “Make haste, my beloved, and be like a gazelle or a young stag on the mountains of spice.”

Here ends the book of Solomon’s song, leaving the church where she ought to be, crying out to Jesus to come quickly - by His Spirit to commune with us now, and in His person to gather us to His presence forever.

Thus also ends the book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ: “He who testifies to these things says, "Surely I am coming soon."

Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!” - Rev. 22:20

Prayer I - filling the temple

Lord Jesus,
who was seen of old by the prophet Isaiah,
continually blessed by the mighty seraphim
hailed as "Holy, holy, holy"
Be Thou enthroned within my heart
high and lifted up
that thou might reign supreme
in my affections, my will, my desires
And let the train of Thy robe
fill this temple
that naught else may dwell within
Thus, Lord Jesus,
holy Lord of hosts,
let my whole being be filled with Thy glory

"On My Heart" - The Song

I thought I'd post the song from which the title of my previous post was quoted. It's a beautiful prayer - quite short, but spiritually rich:

"On my heart imprint Thine image,
Blessèd Jesus, King of Grace,
That life’s riches, cares and pleasures
Have no power Thee to efface.
This the superscription be:
Jesus, crucified for me,
Is my Life, my hope’s Foundation,
And my Glory and Salvation."
- Thomas H. Kingo

Listen to the tune.
It might catch on and you can sing it all day long!

"On My Heart Imprint Thine Image"

Reading John Owen, I encountered these heart-pricking words:

Many love the world too well and have their minds too much filled with the things of it to entertain desires of speeding through it to a state wherein they may behold the glory of Christ. They are at home and are unwilling to be absent from the body, though to be present with the Lord. They hope, it may be, that such a season will come at one time or another, and then it will be the best they can look for when they can be here no more. But they have but a little sight of the glory of Christ in this world by faith, if any at all, who so little, so faintly desire to have the immediate sight of it above...Goods, lands, possessions, relations, trades, with secular interests in them, are the things whose image is drawn on their minds and whose characters are written on their foreheads, as the titles whereby they may be known. As believers, beholding the glory of Christ in the blessed glass of the gospel, are changed into the same image and likeness by the Spirit of the Lord (II Cor. 3:18); so these persons, beholding the beauty of the world and the things that are in it in the cursed glass of self-love, are in their minds changed into the same image. Hence perplexing fears, vain hopes, empty embraces of perishing things, fruitless desires, earthly, carnal designs, cursed, self-pleasing imaginations, feeding on, and being fed by, the love of the world and self, abide and prevail in them. But we have not so learned Christ Jesus.

I fear that I saw a dreadful amount of myself in these lines. Oh how prone I am to idolatry and to wandering from Jesus' bosom. God remove this cursed inclination from my soul and give me more love for Christ!

to keep humble

"When we measure ourselves by the life of our Lord who humbled himself even to death on a cross, we cannot but be overwhelmed by the tawdriness and shabbiness, and even the vileness of our hearts." - J. Oswald Sanders

Here is another reason to be reading the gospels - to keep humble. Have I forgotten how grand He is - my Jesus - and how poor I am?

I must be looking unto Jesus - indeed to persevere in laying hold of Him and to joy in His sufficiency and to love His loveliness, but also - that I may realize His greatness, and be humbled.

"Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession," - Hebrews 3:1 ESV

I Would Be Here

While reading a book for homework I came upon this prayer taken from the Valley of Vision - a collection of puritan devotions. I remembered reading it before, but it encouraged my heart afresh amidst weariness:

...Lord, it is my chief design to bring my heart back to thee.
Convince me that I cannot be my own God,
or make myself happy,
nor my own Christ to restore my joy,
nor my own Spirit to teach, guide, rule me.
Help me to see that grace does this by providential affliction,
for when my credit is good thou dost cast me lower,
when riches are my idol thou dost wing them away,
when pleasure is my all thou dost turn it into bitterness.
Take away my roving eye, curious ear, greedy appetite, lustful heart;
show me that none of these things can heal a wounded conscience,
or support a tottering frame,
or uphold a departing spirit.
Then take me to the cross
and leave me there.

Christ has died for me and I have died with Him; Christ is raised, and Christ will soon come to gather me to Himself. Christ crucified and raised is mine. This is reality; this is all that must satisfy my soul.

"Then take me to the cross and leave me there."

Only This!

"What can wash away my sins?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus."

I have sung those words many times, but recently the weight of them fell upon my soul in a greater way. Yes, how wonderful it is to have salvation from my sins! But to see the price of this salvation is a great and terrible thing. The "little" sins that I commit each day are no trifle with God. First John 1:9 -"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgives us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness" - is not a given. It came at a great price - the blood of God's Son. Oh the horror of sin that God's Son must die to cleanse it - that nothing else would work!

"Ye who think of sin but lightly,
Nor suppose the evil great
Here may view its nature rightly,
Here its guilt may estimate
Mark the sacrifice appointed
See who bears the awful load
'Tis the Word, the Lord's anointed,
Son of man and Son of God."
- Thomas Kelly

This makes our God and Savior very precious - seeing that He shed blood for us, because nothing else could save us.

"you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ"
- 1 Peter 1:18-19 ESV

With an Everlasting Love

What truth is sweet and precious to the believing soul - on bright days and on dull days, when abounding with joy or when near despair?


"I have loved thee with an everlasting love:
therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee."
- Jeremiah 31:3


Lord? Thou hast loved me before I knew thee? Yea, Thou hast loved me before I was!

Of Thy love that chose me, I am Thine.
And of Thy loved that shed blood to purchase me, I am Thine.
And of Thy love that hast drawn me, I am Thine.


This cord of three strands is not easily broken.


What can separate me from Thy love?


Those predestined Thou hast called
those called Thou hast justified
those justified Thou hast glorified.


And not even death shall separate me and Thee.

"Loved with everlasting love

Led by grace that love to know

Gracious Spirit from above

Thou hast taught me it is so.

Oh this full and perfect peace!

Oh this transport all divine!

In a love which cannot cease,

I am His and He is mine."

- George W. Robinson

"...he chose us in him before the foundation of the world,

that we should be holy and blameless before him.

In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ,

according to the purpose of his will,

to the praise of his glorious grace,

with which he has blessed us in the Beloved."

- Eph. 1:4-6 ESV

An Amazing Statement

I was listening the other day to a sermon by Paul Washer, and this statement that he quoted from A.W. Tozer shot out of the laptop speaker and plunged into my heart,

"I can tell how much of God you have by how much entertainment you need."

That is one of the most profound statements, outside of the Bible, that I have ever heard.

"Be still and know that I am God."

Is that enough? That God IS - is that enough? Is it good enough that as long as God IS, anyone who is His need never be - not only never frightened, never worried, never bitter, never lonely - but never bored?

This statement has opened doors of understanding for me. Why, in moments of rest, or engagement in dull duties, did I hunger for something to amuse me? Because I was not satisfied in God. If, with the eyes of my heart, I am looking unto the Beloved Savior, delighting in all that he is, why should I be bored?

There is a difference between freely engaging in wholesome amusement with a God-glorifying purpose, and the restless hunger to be amused. The latter is for worldlings and children, not for God's own.

Next time the desire to fill my empty heart with entertainment comes, how about this -

"Jesus, Savior, come to me;
Let me ever be with Thee,
Come and nevermore depart,
Thou who reignest in my heart.

Lord, for Thee I ever sigh,
Nothing else can satisfy.
Ever do I cry to Thee:
Jesus, Jesus, come to Me!

Earthly joys can give no peace,
Cannot bid my longing cease;
Still to have my Jesus near,
This is all my pleasure here."

by Johann Scheffler, 1657-1677
Translated by Matthias Loy, 1828-1915

His Face

I love reading through the Old Testament and New Testament at the same time. There is a richness that comes from seeing more angles of God's redemption plan at one time. Like these two passages:

Exodus 33:19-20 - Moses said, “Please show me your glory.” And he said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The Lord.’ And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.”

This is the LORD the everlasting God.
One day God became flesh. Jesus. He had a human face. He came to humble himself and die. But how absolutely stunning the second text is in light of the first.

"And the high priest said to him[Jesus], “I adjure you by the living God, tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God.” Jesus said to him, “You have said so. But I tell you, from now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven.” Then the high priest tore his robes and said, “He has uttered blasphemy. What further witnesses do we need? You have now heard his blasphemy. What is your judgment?” They answered, “He deserves death.” Then they spit in his face and struck him. And some slapped him, saying, “Prophesy to us, you Christ! Who is it that struck you?” - Matthew 26:63-67 ESV

This is incredible. Jesus is not separate from the God of the Old Testament - He is one and the same. How great was the condescension in what Jesus the Son of God did to pay for our wrong-doing!

who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him..." - Philippians 2:6-9 ESV

To be Holy

Oh to be holy as Jesus is holy. To be pure as He is pure. How happy are the pure in heart - they shall see God!

Yet Jesus also said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" I have so little holiness, but I am poor. I have so little righteousness, but I hunger and thirst for righteousness - and Jesus said I shall be filled. I am not worthy of this divine gift - poverty and hunger - yes, a gift. An imagined wealth and fullness that end in desolation are all I deserve, and all I would have without grace. But he has given me to know my poverty, that I may come to Him who is altogether full of love and purity and holiness. Blessed grace of Jesus!

Holy, holy, holy is the everlasting God almighty - He is the one - He, HE is the one who began a good work in me and will complete it until the day of Christ Jesus. I need not despair. This is the will of God - our sanctification - and the will of God shall be done. I need not despair. He who is holy, holy, holy shall make me holy someday, all because of Jesus. Jesus was delivered to death for my trespasses and raised for my justification. One day He will come and put all things under His control and all we His own shall be like Him - perfect in holiness.

My soul and spirit are weak today. But if weakness is what it takes to make me lean on Jesus, long for Jesus, then let me always be weak - that I may find Him strong.

"...he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me."- 2 Cor. 12:9 ESV

Let all who love the Lord cry out for more holiness. "Oh come quickly Lord Jesus!"

Our soul waits for the Lord;he is our help and our shield.

For our heart is glad in him,because we trust in his holy name.

Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us,even as we hope in you.

- Psalm 33:20-22

What Ought to Make the Heart Beat

On Revive our Hearts radio today, Nancy Demoss shared this statement from Oswald Chambers that really leaped out at me:

"Our circumstances are the means of manifesting how wonderfully perfect and extraordinarily pure the Son of God is. The thing that ought to make the heart beat is a new way of manifesting the Son of God.”

That means any opportunity to do right is a cause to rejoice that I can manifest the mighty purity of the spirit of Christ dwelling in me. Anything that shows my own weakness or dependency on Christ is a cause to rejoice that I can manifest His power. If anything I cherished is taken from me, it is a cause to rejoice that I might demonstrate His superior value. For those united to Jesus by faith, all of life is about manifesting His superiority. That's what should make us excited, what should make our heart beat. Even if it means less of something - less of comfort, less of ease, less of reputation, less of strength, the important thing is that it is more, more, more of Jesus seen. May God make this our hearts' desire.

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. - 2 Corinthians 12:9 ESV

"Having given them grace, I will give them a crown."

After "consuming" quite a number of Charles Spurgeon's sermons, I finally decided to read his biography, and found this quote simply encouraging,

"I think how surprised some of God's people will be" he exclaims, "when they get to heaven. They will see the Master and He will give them a crown.
'Lord, what is this crown for?'
'That is because thou didst give a cup of cold water to one of my disciples.'
'What, a crown for a cup of cold water?'
'Yes,' says the Master, 'that is how I pay my servants. First I give them grace to give the cup of water, and then, having given them grace, I will give them a crown.''"

- from Charles Spurgeon - London's Most Popular Preacher by W.Y. Fullerton

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. - Eph. 2:8-10 ESV