If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things which concern mine infirmities. 2 Cor. 11:30. For when I am weak, then am I strong. Chap. 12:10.

Only Christians use this kind of language and approve of it. The Christian life is a divine life from God lived entirely by faith. It is impossible to be a Christian and yet be independent. Unless Christ has the sovereign rule over us, we cannot live the Christian life. Nothing but God and His will is to have supreme place in our devotion. We renounce all self-glory in order to prove the excellence of the power of God. We renounce all ego power in order to live by the power of the Holy Spirit. We glory in substituting the power of God for the power of sinful man. We confess the worthlessness of everything that is apart from Christ. It is our self-achieved righteousnesses that God calls filthy rags, not only our obvious transgressions (see Isa. 64: 6). We take the lowest seat as candidates for the highest. We recognize our utter poverty of mind and soul in order to gain the riches of Christ.

Our participation with Christ's death and resurrection is it very real thing. As soon as we discern the ego motive, we ought promptly to take ourselves to the Lord and surrender to Him. Pride and self-centeredness are the basic cause of all our sins: anger, hostility, envy, jealousy, resentment.

We are to see ourselves as new beings in Him, living from an entirely new center. We share the quality of Christ's self-denial. The Holy Spirit provides us with the power and the confidence to enable us to live that way. Christian experience is not an improvement of the self-life that merits congratulations. We affirm our manhood and womanhood always in utter dependence on Christ.

It is not enough to be crucified with Christ. We must also rise with Him to a new life. Seek those things which are above. To rise with Christ is to participate in His resurrection life. We cannot rise to new life without Him. We persevere knowing that nothing can take us out of His hands. "I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust" (Ps. 91:2). "There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling" (verse 10).