“For to me, to live is Christ.” Philippians 1:21
The Lord Jesus only wanted the Father’s will. Paul also only wanted what God had for him. But we so many times want something else. We want something other than what God is giving us. Because of this, the best fellowship that we can be given is “Draw a circle around yourself. Do not touch anything outside of that circle. Just deal with yourself and want God alone. Just take God. Just pursue God Himself.” This is what it means to follow the pathway of the cross. If we do not come to this point in our experience, then we will have to settle for another level of Christian life, another kind of Christian life. It is a life in which you want a little bit of God, but you also want a lot of other things. So you eventually become shallow, empty, without any weight, because you have settled for another level of Christian life. You want something else besides God.
Taking the pathway of the cross and dealing with the Lord by the cross means that we do not want anything outside of God. I do not want a marriage outside of God. I do not want a happy family outside of God. I do not want finances outside of God. I do not want a good job outside of God. I do not want to be successful for the Lord outside of God. I do not want to do anything outside of God. I just want God. This was Paul’s attitude in prison in Rome. There he was — bound. If he had wanted something other than God, he could never have testified, “For to me, to live is Christ.” That means he did not want anything outside of God. So also in our own experience, it is crucial that we want nothing outside of God.