November 13

A song of ascents. I lift up my eyes to You, the One enthroned in heaven. — Ps 123:1 BSB

Oh, how simple, suitable, complete, and blessed a remedy this is for all our distresses, when the Lord is pleased to open our eyes and fix them on Himself. He must do everything. If our eyes are to be set upon Him, He must first give us eyes. If they are lifted toward Him, He must raise them. If they are to remain on Him, He must keep them open. It is a good place to be.

There are times when it seems like we have no religion at all—when we look and look but can’t find a trace of it. Where is our spirituality? Where are our heavenly affections, our spirit of prayer, our tenderness of conscience, our godly fear, or our meditation on God's word? We search and search, but they seem to have disappeared. And then, perhaps in the midst of this uncertainty, we are brought into some painful trial, affliction, temptation, or fear, something that weighs heavily on our soul. Now is when we need our religion most.

But it’s gone, leaving us empty, needy, naked, and bare. Our religion, as far as its comforts and blessings go, seems to be entirely absent. This is an emptying process, stripping the soul down to the bone, but it is a preparation to receive the religion that comes from above. The vessel must be emptied of the dirty water of our own religion, rinsed clean and ready to be filled with the pure water of heavenly religion. God never mixes His pure heavenly stream with the dirty waters of our natural religion. We must be entirely emptied of it before the holy, spiritual religion from above can be poured into our souls.

To look and look, only to find emptiness, nakedness, barrenness, and need, with a great host of enemies coming against us while we are as weak as water—what an emptying for divine filling, what a stripping for divine clothing, and what a humbling of self to lift up Christ. True religion mainly consists of two points: first, being emptied, stripped, made naked and bare; and second, being clothed and filled from the fullness of Christ.