But how can we tell in a given situation whether our pain is from the cross or the rod?
Pain is pain from whatever source it comes.
Jonah in flight from the will of God suffered no worse storm than did Paul in the center of Gods will; the same wild sea threatened the life of both.
And Daniel in the lions den was in trouble as deep as was Jonah in the whales belly.
The nails bit as deep into the hands of Christ dying for the sins of the world as into the hands of the two thieves dying for their own sins.
How then may we distinguish the cross from the rod?
I think the answer is plain.
When tribulation comes we have but to note whether it is imposed or chosen. "Blessed are ye," said our Lord, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you? (Matt. 5:11).
But that is not all.
Four other words He added: they are falsely, for my sake. These words show that the suffering must come voluntarily, that it must be chosen in the larger choice of Christ and righteousness. If the accusation men cry against us is true, no blessedness follows.
verse
No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.
— Hebrews 12:11
thought
C. S. Lewis wrote of God shouting to us in our pains, using pain as a megaphone to rouse a deaf world. Pain is a loud summons to self-examination. Are we suffering for the cause of Christ or because of personal sin?
prayer
Father, when I am experiencing pain due to my sin, help me to recognize it. When it is for other reasons may I accept it as fromYou.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
As the cross stands in the way of obedience, so chastisement is found in the way of disobedience.
God never chastens a perfectly obedient child.
Consider the fathers of our flesh; they never punished us for obedience, only for disobedience.
When we feel the sting of the rod we may be sure we are temporarily out of the right way.
Conversely, the pain of the cross means that we are in the way.
But the Fathers love is not more or less, wherever we may be. God chastens us not that He may love us but because He loves us.
In a well-ordered house a disobedient child may expect punishment; in the household of God no careless Christian can hope to escape it.
verse
Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness.
— Hebrews 12:10
thought
God disciplines us for our good that we may share in His holiness. It is the only way we shall ever share in that holiness. To that end He chastens us in love.
prayer
O thank You, Lord, for Your persistent, consistent discipline. I don't learn easily and I often have to relearn but You are patiently loving in chastening me.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
Chastisement is an act of God; cross carrying an act of the Christian.
When God in love lays the rod to the back of His children He does not ask permission.
Chastisement for the believer is not voluntary except in the sense that he chooses the will of God with the knowledge that the will of God includes chastisement. ?For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?? (Heb. 12:6-7). The cross never comes unsolicited; the rod always does.
If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me? (Matt. 16:24).
Here is clear, intelligent choice, a choice that must be made by the individual with determination and forethought. In the kingdom of God no one ever stumbled onto a cross. But what is the cross for the Christian?
Obviously it is not the wooden instrument the Romans used to execute the sentence of death upon persons guilty of capital crimes. The cross is the suffering the Christian endures as a consequence of his following Christ in perfect obedience. Christ chose the cross by choosing the path that led to it; and it is so with His followers. In the way of obedience stands the cross, and we take the cross when we enter that way.
verse
And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons: "My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts."
— Hebrews 12:5-6
thought
Henry Lyte wrote: "In Thy service pain is pleasure; with Thy favor loss is gain." It is that way when we follow Christ carrying our cross. When we drop it, there is discipline in love.
prayer
Thank You, Father, that You don't abandon me when I fail You. You lovingly discipline me.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
For the Christian cross carrying and chastisement are alike but not identical.
They differ in a number of important ways.
The two ideas are usually considered to be the same and the words embodying the ideas are used interchangeably. There is, however, a sharp distinction between them.
When we confuse them we are not thinking accurately; and when we do not think accurately about truth we lose some benefit that we might otherwise enjoy.
The cross and the rod occur close together in the Holy Scriptures, but they are not the same thing.
The rod is imposed without the consent of the one who suffers it.
The cross cannot be imposed by another.
Even Christ bore the cross by His own free choice.
He said of the life He poured out on the cross, No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of mysel(John 10:18).
He had every opportunity to escape the cross but He set His face like a flint to go to Jerusalem to die. The only compulsion He knew was the compulsion of love.
verse
And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.
— Luke 14:27
thought
The rod is an instrument of discipline, correction wielded by the loving Father. The cross is the instrument of self-discipline, dying to self in order to live fully for Christ.
prayer
Lord, if I sometimes drop my cross along the way, show me, so that I pick it up again and carry it all the way.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
7. The spiritual man habitually makes eternity-judgments instead of time-judgments.
By faith he rises above the tug of earth and the flow of time and learns to think and feel as one who has already left the world and gone to join the innumerable company of angels and the general assembly and Church of the First-born which are written in heaven.
Such a man would rather be useful than famous and would rather serve than be served. And all this must be by the operation of the Holy Spirit within him.
No man can become spiritual by himself.
Only the free Spirit can make a man spiritual.
verse
For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.
— 2 Corinthians 4:17
thought
Living with eternity's values in view lightens our momentary troubles. It equips us to live our todays in the perspective of the eternal tomorrow.
prayer
Thank You, Father, for the privilege of experiencing inner renewal even when the external wastes away.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
5. Another desire of the spiritual man is to die right rather than to live wrong
. A sure mark of the mature man of God is his nonchalance about living.
The earth-loving, body-conscious Christian looks upon death with numb terror in his heart; but as he goes on to live in the Spirit he becomes increasingly indifferent to the number of his years here below, and at the same time increasingly careful of the kind of life he lives while he is here.
He will not purchase a few extra days of life at the cost of compromise or failure. He wants most of all to be right, and he is happy to let God decide how long he shall live. He knows that he can afford to die now that he is in Christ, but he knows that he cannot afford to do wrong, and this knowledge becomes a gyroscope to stabilize his thinking and his acting.
6. The desire to see others advance at his expense is another mark of the spiritual man.
He wants to see other Christians above him and is happy when they are promoted and he is overlooked.
There is no envy in his heart; when his brethren are honored he is pleased because such is the will of God and that will is his earthly heaven.
If God is pleased, he is pleased for that reason, and if it pleases God to exalt another above him he is content to have it so.
verse
Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves.
— Romans 12:10
thought
Love for others promotes them above ourselves, even at our expense. It makes us encouragers, developers of people.
prayer
Thank You, Father, for those whom You have used to develop me. Use me in honoring and encouraging others. For Jesus' sake.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
3. The spiritual man wants to carry his cross.
Many Christians accept adversity or tribulation with a sigh and call it their cross, forgetting that such things come alike to saint and sinner.
The cross is that extra adversity that comes to us as a result of our obedience to Christ. This cross is not forced upon us; we voluntarily take it up with full knowledge of the consequences. We choose to obey Christ and by so doing choose to carry the cross.
Carrying a cross means to be attached to the Person of Christ, committed to the Lordship of Christ and obedient to the commandments of Christ. The man who is so attached, so committed, so obedient is a spiritual man.
4. Again, a Christian is spiritual when he sees everything from Gods viewpoint. The ability to weigh all things in the divine scale and place the same value upon them as God does is the mark of a Spirit-filled life. God looks at and through at the same time. His gaze does not rest on the surface but penetrates to the true meaning of things.
The carnal Christian looks at an object or a situation, but because he does not see through it he is elated or cast down by what he sees.
The spiritual man is able to look through things as God looks and think of them as God thinks. He insists on seeing all things as God sees them even if it humbles him and exposes his ignorance to the point of real pain.
verse
Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me."
— Matthew 16:24
thought
Today crosses are placed on church steeples or made of gold and used as necklaces or lapel pins. The cross of which Jesus spoke is an instrument of death ? ours.
prayer
Forgive me, Lord, for storing my cross in the basement. You want me to carry it daily.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
True spirituality manifests itself in certain dominant desires.
These are ever-present, deep-settled wants sufficiently powerful to motivate and control the life.
For convenience let me number them, though I make no effort to decide the order of their importance.
1. First is the desire to be holy rather than happy. The yearning after happiness found so widely among Christians professing a superior degree of sanctity is sufficient proof that such sanctity is not indeed present. The truly spiritual man knows that God will give abundance of joy after we have become able to receive it without injury to our souls, but he does not demand it at once.
John Wesley said of the members of one of the earliest Methodist societies that he doubted that they had been made perfect in love because they came to church to enjoy religion instead of to learn how they could become holy.
2. A man may be considered spiritual when he wants to see the honor of God advanced through his life even if it means that he himself must suffer temporary dishonor or loss. Such a man prays ?Hallowed be Thy name, and silently adds, at any cost to me, Lord. He lives for Gods honor by a kind of spiritual reflex.
Every choice involving the glory of God is for him already made before it presents itself. He does not need to debate the matter with his own heart; there is nothing to debate. The glory of God is necessary to him; he gasps for it as a suffocating man gasps for air.
verse
Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? "Father, save me from this hour"? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name!
— John 12:27-28
thought
God's glory at any cost, even my own. Too often "our glory" gets in the way. Self intrudes. It is God's glory that matters!
prayer
Father, glorify Your name through me. Bring me to that place where I can pray with all my heart "Your glory at any cost to me."
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
verse
verse
Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly ? mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it.
— 1 Corinthians 3:1-2
The concept of spirituality varies among different Christian groups. In some circles the highly vocal person who talks religion continually is thought to be very spiritual; others accept noisy exuberance as a mark of spirituality, and in some churches the man who prays first, longest and loudest gets a reputation for being the most spiritual man in the assembly. Now a vigorous testimony, frequent prayers and loud praise may be entirely consistent with spirituality, but it is important that we understand that they do not in themselves constitute it nor prove that it is present. True spirituality manifests itself in certain dominant desires. These are ever-present, deep-settled wants sufficiently powerful to motivate and control the life. . . .
thought
It is submission to the control of the Spirit that makes me spiritual. Changes in daily living result as do dominant desires.
prayer
Deliver me, Lord, from assuming a form of spirituality that fits people expectations. You know the real me and that is what needs changing.