Life Without Lack: Living in the Fullness of Psalm 23

by Dallas Willard

Only when we are prepared to let go of the things that tempt us to keep life under our own control are we prepared to give up our lives—even to the point of death. Jesus was very clear about that. He told his disciples, “I’ve taught you how to love one another. Real love is when a person is prepared to lay down their life for their friends” (John 15:12–13 PAR). That is the ultimate self-denial, to be sure. But those who walk in the kingdom of God, and know his sufficiency, are ready to give and forgive without limitation.

up. Death to self means releasing all our desires, our reputation, our glory, and having our way with other people. Everything. A dead person does not continue to have just a little life left in him. So, when it comes to our death to self, we have to say, “Lord, give it to me. I will take it. I will lay it all down for you.”

fruit produced by following Jesus. They must

The self remains alive and on the throne of our lives as long as we take what happens to us as the ultimate point of reference. Instead, we need to engage in honest and thoughtful prayer, letting God know what we are going through, listening for his calming assurance that all will be well, then acting in trust against the lack or threat while praising God as we move forward with our lives.

When we see people dominated by their lust for glory or insisting that their will be done, we will be in a position where we can be very firm in not cooperating with them, even if they’re our loved ones. When we live in the Shepherd’s sufficiency and die to our selves, we become the most firmly established people in this world.

Jesus was no doormat; he was simply dead to self, and fully alive to God. Dignity—real dignity—comes to the person who, by the grace of God, has embraced death to self. Such people are the only ones who can stand up to other selves, which, of course, includes serving them in ways that are good and right. Death to self gives us the place to stand in real dignity, in the yoke of Jesus, and not cooperate with the efforts of other people to live out their fleshly fantasies, whatever they may be.

As the ancient Jewish benediction puts it: The LORD bless you and keep you; The LORD make His face shine upon you, And be gracious to you; The LORD lift up His countenance upon you [look right at you] And give you peace. (NUM. 6:24–26) It is the experience of having God look you right in the eye and saying, “I love you! I approve of you!” that is the unshakable ground of our self-worth. Our ultimate approval is from God, not from other human beings.

It is not unusual to find ourselves slipping out from under the yoke, with the self clamoring for us to do this or have that. We may have thought we were fine with surrendering our selves completely, but then realize this is not the case. We should not be taken aback by this; such experiences can give us important insight into how the process of dying to our selves works. We come up against a desire and discover that we are not as willing to give it up as we imagined. This becomes an opportunity to repent and receive further instruction in humility, through the realization that we are more in the habit of getting what we want than we were previously willing to admit.

One of the main reasons we have such little faith is that we have not lived through the process of abandonment and come to the place where God can trust us with great faith. Once we have abandoned our lives to God, we are ready to receive the gift of faith that will enable us to love others well. Love with patience. Love without conditions. Love without irritation or anger. The kind of love we receive when we walk in the humility that comes from having died to our selves.

Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn others, or it will all come back against you. Forgive others, and you will be forgiven. Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full—pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back.

they have been loved rightly by their family, they have a treasure. Unfortunately, many people who were not loved rightly in their families enter marriage thinking, Now, at last, I am really going to be loved, but they soon find out that both they and their spouse are hampered in loving each other.

We do not achieve the disposition of agape love by direct effort, but by training: attending to and putting into place the conditions out of which it arises. This is where the regular practice of the spiritual disciplines comes strongly into play.5 Once again, the goal is not to be people who do loving things but to become the kind of people who naturally, joyfully, and easily love.

Love, then, is a condition of the will, embodied in the fundamental dimensions of the human personality, guiding them for the purpose of serving the good. In the deepest sense, love is not something you choose to do; it is what you become—a loving person. Your will is your capacity to bring things and events and processes into existence. It is the control center of the self: the “heart” or the human spirit. It is meant to direct all aspects of the self. When love pervades your will, all these other dimensions—your mind (with its thoughts, images and feelings, desires and emotions), your body, your social relationships, indeed your whole soul**—work in harmony with and in service to the kingdom of God, and your life becomes a testimony to the God who meets your every need.6

You will not drift into love; you must decide to love.

Of course, the reality is that most of religion is organized around keeping God at a distance, allowing us to “go see him” when we want. We say things such as, “Lord, this morning we come into thy presence,” to which God might be saying, “Really? Where have you been?” For God has always been present.

We don’t have to try to be someone we are not. Indeed, we cannot be someone we are not, and we won’t find God’s blessing there anyway because God has yet to bless anyone except where they actually are.

What is important is to understand that you must plan those times to turn your mind to God. Remember the principle I laid down in the first chapter: the most important thing about you is your mind, and the most important thing about your mind is what it is fixed upon. So the object is to have your mind always fixed on the Lord.

Train yourself to use each change of person or event to remind you to pray and to bless, so that mere change becomes a signal to turn your mind back to God. Do this and you will shortly master the secrets of praying without ceasing.

God in love accepts us as we are, because he cannot accept us the way we aren’t.

Open our eyes to the high privilege of being created in your image. Convince us that nothing makes you happier than seeing those redeemed by your grace devoting their days to the good of other people and your creation. Win over our timid and doubting hearts with the conviction that we are your greatest treasure in all creation.

Proverbs 3:5–6 Trust in the LORD with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.

Jeremiah 29:11–13 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.

is in the death to self that humility is perfected.

Believer, claim in faith the death and the life of Jesus as yours. Enter in His grave into the rest from self and its work—the rest of God. With Christ, who committed His spirit into the Father’s hands, humble yourself and descend each day into that perfect, helpless dependence upon God. God will raise you up and exalt you. Sink every morning in deep, deep nothingness into the grave of Jesus; every day the life of Jesus will be manifest in you. Let a willing, loving, restful, happy humility be the mark that you have indeed claimed your birthright—the baptism into the death of Christ. “By one offering He has perfected forever them that are sanctified.” The souls that enter into His humiliation will find in Him the power to see and count self-dead, and, as those who have learned and received of Him, to walk with all lowliness and meekness, forbearing one another in love. The death-life is seen in a meekness and lowliness like that of Christ.