(What Must Be Removed and What Is Established)
May 5 brings the believer into a decisive reality: the life cannot remain grounded in itself, and yet it is not left without ground—for it is established in belonging to God.
1. The Necessary End of Self-Reliance
Chambers writes:
“Every element of our self-reliance must be put to death by the power of God.” (My Utmost for His Highest)
Chambers speaks without qualification.
Self-reliance is not something to refine or redirect—it must end. It belongs to a source that cannot sustain the life of God, and therefore cannot remain alongside it.
And this is not accomplished by the self.
It is put to death by the power of God.
This means the life is brought into situations, pressures, and exposures where reliance upon self is shown to be insufficient. What once appeared stable is revealed as unable to hold.
This is not loss for its own sake.
It is removal.
Every element that rests in the self must give way, so that the life is no longer sourced there. What cannot remain is brought to its end, not gradually improved, but decisively displaced.
2. The Meaning of Belonging to God
Spurgeon writes:
“How much of meaning is couched in those two words, ‘My people!’” (Morning and Evening)
Spurgeon directs attention to what is established in place of that loss.
“My people” is not a general statement—it is a declaration of belonging. It speaks of a people whose life is no longer their own, but held in relation to God.
This is identity.
Not self-defined, not self-maintained, but given.
To belong to God is to have one’s life grounded outside of the self. It is to be held in a relationship where the source, the sustaining, and the meaning of life are all found in him.
The removal of self-reliance does not leave the life empty.
It establishes it here.
3. Where the Two Meet: From Self as Source to God as Ground
These truths meet in a single movement.
What is removed is self-reliance—the life grounded in its own ability, perception, or stability. What is established is belonging—the life grounded in God himself.
One must end so the other may stand.
As long as the life rests in itself, it cannot fully rest in God. But as self-reliance is brought to its end, the life finds its true place—not in independence, but in relation.
No longer self-held, it is God-held.
No longer self-defined, it is known as his.
4. Pastoral Orientation
May 5 calls for surrender and assurance.
Do not resist the removal of self-reliance. Let what cannot sustain your life come to its end.
Do not fear what is taken away. Your life is established in belonging to God.
As you continue walking “after the spirit,” you will find that as self-reliance fades, the certainty of belonging becomes clearer—not as something you hold, but as where you are held.
Let self-reliance end. Rest in being his.
And you will discover a life that is no longer grounded in self, but established in the One who says, “My people.”