Did you ever wonder how our Lord, as a man, could do all that He did: overcome all evil - the world, sin, and the devil? 

It was only possible because His will was always to do the will of His Father. He took the place of entire subordination, and gave God the honor and glory which is due to Him. He yielded to His working and lived the truth that, as a man, created by God, He could do nothing, and was nothing, without God (Jn. 15:5), God was all, and all the glory was to be His (Jn. 5:30, 6:38, 7:16, 28, 8:42, 14:10). 

May we, as His people, come to live this precious truth and then we will know something more of the perfect peace and joy that the Lord had in self-denial, absolute submission, and dependence upon God, His Father and His God. 

Abraham did this and that is why he called himself "dust and ashes" (Gen. 18:27). God was his all; he was nothing. That is why he could later give up his son to die if God so willed (Gen. 22:1-18). Hope always finds its strength in complete helplessness. Abraham had strength to hope against hope because it is only when we are weak, helpless, and nothing that God can be all to us (Rom. 4:16-22). 

This is why Paul, also, could rejoice in all things and overcome so many things; God was his all and he was nothing (I Cor. 3:7, 15:9-10, II Cor. 12:11). He always knew that it was only God that made him to differ (I Cor. 4:7). 

Let us make known to all "this secret of the Lord," the secret of His humility, strong faith, and victorious death. It is only in being nothing, and empty vessel through which God can manifest the riches of His wisdom, power, and goodness, that we will be enabled to receive the fullness of His grace, and one day, the fullness of His glory. 

May we feast our eyes continually upon the Lord that we may know more of the great blessedness of the life of the Son of God, our Savior and be changed into His glorious image (II Cor. 3:18).