Greetings,
Have you ever noticed that when it comes to human nature, we tend to want to “prove” ourselves by the act of self-sufficiency?
(If you want something done right, you’ve got to do it yourself.)
Of course, this assumes that we have in us what it takes to do what needs to be done. It also presupposes that it is all up to us, that if not for the effort of our own hands, nothing would ever get done. But the more we force ourselves to “let go & let God” (and this does take a great effort), the less we stand in the way of His will for our lives.
We need to be willing to allow God to lead. That means we must remain pliable at all times to the urgings of His will, even when we can’t see where He is leading us. What is it that we hold onto so firmly that we are not willing to give it over to God if He asked us to? Is there something God is trying to reveal to us, that whenever He gives us a glimpse of it, we look away because deep inside we know that allowing it to take root in our mind would mean having to give up some long-held ideas of how things truly are? I find that I ask myself these kinds of questions more and more. When was the last time you exposed yourself to God in this way, asking Him to reveal Himself more fully to you at the risk of having to let go of beliefs you presently hold dear?
Don’t you see that it is when we are weak that He is strong? When we are humbled, He is exalted. God desires us to be “willing” to sacrifice our prized possessions for His sake. That is part of what it means to take up our cross and follow Jesus, who willingly gave it all for our sakes. We should be willing to do the same for Him. When we are willing to sacrifice to Him all that we hold dear, He gives us greater treasures than we now possess.
In GAL 2:20 Paul says, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” As Oswald Chambers put it, “To become one with Jesus Christ, a person must be willing not only to give up sin, but also to surrender his whole way of looking at things. Being born again by the Spirit of God means that we must first be willing to let go before we can grasp something else.” Perhaps the hardest part of being a Christian is letting go of what we believe to be the real treasure when God has something greater He wants to give us. We must stop working so hard at being a perfect Christian, because, through our own efforts, it is not possible. Even Jesus said, “Of myself I can do nothing” [JN 5:19, 5:30, 8:28]. If we can let go and let God, we can become perfect. Through Christ in us, all things are possible [MT 19:26, MK 10:27]. Allowing God’s will to work in our lives produces the good fruit He desires of us.
Satan and society would like us to believe that we don’t
need God. We are bombarded with the idea
that we possess within ourselves what it takes to become perfect on our
own. Well, the truth is that we who have
been born from above do have such a
power within ourselves. We have Christ
in us, the hope of glory [
Have a blessed February,
Pastor Thom
Click on a month to see a previous edition of "The Pastor's Desk."