Nothing

Paul wrote to the Galatians, “If anyone thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself” (Galatians 6:3).

Just so, my Lord Jesus wants me to take that blessed position as a worker, and morning by morning and day by day and hour by hour and step by step, in every work I have to do, simply to abide before Him in the simple utter helplessness of one who knows nothing, and is nothing, and can do nothing. Oh, beloved workers, study that word nothing.

You sometimes sing that song written by Georgiana Taylor, “Oh to Be Nothing,” but have you really studied that word, and prayed every day, and worshipped God in the light of it? Do you know the blessedness of that word nothing?

Oh, to be nothing, nothing,
Only to lie at His feet,
A broken and emptied vessel,
For the Master’s use made meet.
Emptied that He might fill me,
As forth to His service I go;
Broken, that so unhindered
His life through me might flow.

Refrain:
Oh, to be nothing, nothing,
Only to lie at His feet,
A broken and emptied vessel,
For the Master’s use made meet.

Oh, to be nothing, nothing,
Only as led by His hand;
A messenger at His gateway,
Only waiting for His command;
Only an instrument ready
His praises to sound at His will,
Willing, should He not require me,
In silence to wait on Him still.

Oh, to be nothing, nothing,
Painful the humbling may be,
Yet low in the dust I’d lay me
That the world might my Savior see.
Rather be nothing, nothing,
To Him let all voices be raised:
He is the Fountain of blessing,
He only is meet to be praised.

If I am something, then God is not everything; but when I become nothing, God can become all, and the everlasting God in Christ can reveal himself fully. That is the higher life. We need to become nothing.

Someone has well said that the seraphim and cherubim are flames of fire, because they know they are nothing, and they allow God to put His fullness and His glory and brightness into them. They are nothing, and God is all in them and around them.

Oh, become nothing in deep reality, and as a worker, study only one thing—to become poorer and lower and more helpless, that Christ may work all in you.

Source: Absolute Surrender by Andrew Murray