Many confound self-occupation with self-judgment; and, seeing self-judgment to be right (when we fail), are found asking themselves where the one ends and where the other begins. And self-occupation they question. A word or two on these may help, if the Lord permit.
Self-occupation is the bane of the soul. Man makes himself the center, and himself the chief object upon earth. This is self occupation.
Self-judgment is the work of the Spirit of God. It is not His proper, but it is often, from our want of watchfulness, His necessary work. There is no way of return to the joy of communion without it. Self-judgment, though right in its place, is not communion; on the contrary, it is the confession that communion is lost. But it is the only way back; it is medicine, not food.
For me to live daily with self ignored is the highest Christian condition. Here the Spirit of God is free to carry on His proper work in my soul, to take Christ and put Him before me as my food. Here the soul is free to be occupied by and for Christ alone. The Apostle says, "For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." It is the only right state for food. And food is the soul's appropriation of Christ, and feeding upon Him as ministered by the Spirit. He alone is the "bread of life which came down from heaven"; as John 6:5656He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. (John 6:56) says, "He that eateth My flesh, and drinketh My blood, dwelleth in Me and I in him." It is not the having done so once by faith. That is in verse 51, and is of the first importance. Food is the daily need
of the man, and it is here his daily habit to feed. But how important to see that self-occupation is not food, and that self judgment is not food; and how can I live or grow without food?