Check out the "My Utmost" for Oct 23: http://www.myutmost.org/10/1023.html
Here is a quote that I find most powerful and deep reaching:
“How are we going to get the life that has no lust, no self-interest, no sensitiveness to pokes, the love that is not provoked, that thinketh no evil, that is always kind? The only way is by allowing not a bit of the old life to be left; but only simple perfect trust in God, such trust that we no longer want God's blessings, but only want Himself. Have we come to the place where God can withdraw His blessings and it does not affect our trust in Him? When once we see God at work, we will never bother our heads about things that happen, because we are actually trusting in our Father in Heaven Whom the world cannot see.”
Firstly, can you even imagine life so refined by God that you have no lust or no self-interest? No sensitiveness to “wrongs,” or unprovokable love? I can hardly fathom it. But we’re working our way there by God’s grace.
Secondly, would our faith be tested and revealed so strong as it currently seems or appears if all of God’s blessings were stripped away? All of them. For Job, all was taken but his life, yet he remained faithful. We seek blessing after blessing—at least I have for the longest time—but there is a major difference in seeking gifts vs. seeking the Giver. To think that we’d be content to have daily conversation with God, stripped of every human comfort and physical blessing. To think that quite literally, “My grace is sufficient for you,” and that was literally all we had to cling to (2 Cor 12:9). Few of us have ever truly been there, not to that extent, and honestly, I kind of hope not to be…yet, what a joy must be developed in someone who is led down that path, never forsaking God, continuing to have faith and be sustained by God Himself alone, supernaturally through the presence of His Holy Spirit within us. I don’t think you or I even know what that really means or looks like, for we are so far from it. It makes me consider the following: the man who does not know Jesus and is suffering--he is to be pitied. The man who stands solidly in Christ and is suffering--he is to be envied (in a righteous sense, such that we see his plight as good and desirable). That’s a radical change of thought, but I believe it is true. Understandably, many cannot accept it.
Let's ask ourselves this piercing question today: What would it take for me to trust God with absolute abandonment to the point that all I desire is His presence and grace and nothing else matters? Am I willing to pursue eternal life with Him that way, or am I resigned to always put a little bit of myself above all other things, including my all-powerful, perfectly loving God and Creator?
Actually I think I know some people like that. I always wondered how they could be so happy and focused with all their troubles and trials. I would always say something like…”He’s a better man than me!” Apparently I was dead on.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely hard to accept. Scary
Yeah, I think we've both seen examples. Think of it not as “better men," but “more experienced men.” That’s all. It’s like me looking at my Sr. engineer and wondering "how do you know that" or "how did you anticipate that" or "how do you put up with that?" The answer is inevitably “experience.” Experience with God is the difference.
ReplyDeleteWe all start as babies, then grow into early childhood, then into adolescence, then early adulthood, middle-age, and finally we become elders. The same is true in our relationship with God.
Some are saved at 6 years old. Some are saved at 106 years old. All are saved equally. It doesn’t matter what stage of development we are at when we die, nor does it matter what stage we are in today. What matters most is that we are in a stage, meaning we have accepted Jesus, and what matters second most is that we are on our way to developing and growing into the next stage of development. Being an “elder” or “babe” in relationship to God is much less significant than growing right where we are. That is our only directive—to grow. Not to be this or be that or grow to this or that point...just to grow. Some of us grow fast at times, slow at others, and some of us have stopped growing and are even dying. The slowest of growth is so pleasing to God! I would say this to every single friend of mine: be encouraged and content in the slowest of growth, praising Him for both the accelerated and infinitesimally slow paces.
You know, it comes back to what Jesus said about denying ourselves. I do believe that, as you grow in the Lord, there are often those times when we pray—Oh, Lord, I would really like this (whatever), but I don’t have to have it. I have to have you. Life has no meaning if I am not close to you, pleasing you somehow.
ReplyDeleteSo we do develop towards that, but when you are suffering or lonely or see no hope for a particular situation, it can be so devastating—especially if you are not sensing the Lord’s presence. (sometimes in a test of faith you do; others, you don’t).
The thing is, as we grow in the Lord, we should be closer to the ideal than we were five years ago, ten years ago, etc. (That might be hard to gauge, but a little self-examination and honesty would probably make it pretty clear.)
I still love the fact that Jesus, according to the instructions of the Father, taught us to pray: Lead us not into temptation (or hard testing?—according to at least one translation), but deliver us from evil. So there is something to be said for avoiding some suffering, anyway.
All in all, we just need to grow.
Definitely. Good points about the Lord's prayer. What is the purpose of being led out of temptation and delivered from evil, though? It is certainly not for our comfort, but to preserve our righteousness. To me it is prayer of agreement of when Jesus says that we will not be tested beyond what we are able to withstand. Most of us would pray the Lord’s prayer because we desire comfort or an easiness of life. I think that part of the prayer is more desperate. It’s intent is purely spiritual and not physical to me. You and I will certainly pray that prayer for our souls, but I think as soon as we apply it to being more comfortable, we have overstepped. Comfort (as opposed to peace) leads to complacency. Complacency leads to distance from God or a spiritually lethargic state, in which we are more vulnerable to attack. So praying for a lack of temptation such that we are comfortable, getting complacent and lethargic, actually defeats the purpose of the prayer, which is our desire for righteousness.
ReplyDeletePerhaps I’m splitting hairs here, but I think we’re on the same page. I look around and see that a great number of us think of being delivered from evil as being relieved of our circumstances. Perhaps the difficult circumstances are actually an answer to that prayer, in that we were strengthened through them, such that we were able to withstand the onslaught of the Evil One that God saw coming. Know what I mean? The difference is attitude, which of course, makes all the difference.