Our Father has determined that Christ shall be all and in all and we nothing. To accomplish this, experimentally, He plunges us in the ditch, turns us upside down, and undoes our doings. This is difficult; and while it is going on, we think it must be for our destruction; but in truth it is for our salvation and His glory! There can be no drinking of the living waters while we have a price in our hand, be it little or much. There can be no "triumphanting in the Lord our righteousness" while we are hunting for shreds of our own goodness and sewing them together. If we be anything, have anything, or can do anything, the Lord Jesus is not EVERYTHING; and if He be not everything to us, He is nothing at all.
jw