Living A Reasonably Righteous Life

My Utmost For His Highest

“‘By this we believe….’ Jesus answered them, ‘Do you now believe?’” —John 16:30-31

“‘Now we believe….’ But Jesus asks, ‘Do you…? Indeed the hour is coming…that you…will leave Me alone’ (John 16:31-32). Many Christian workers have left Jesus Christ alone and yet tried to serve Him out of a sense of duty, or because they sense a need as a result of their own discernment. […] Our soul has gotten out of intimate contact with God by leaning on our own religious understanding (see Proverbs 3:5-6). […] We need to rely on the resurrection life of Jesus on a much deeper level than we do now. We should get in the habit of continually seeking His counsel on everything, instead of making our own commonsense decisions and then asking Him to bless them. […] We become a prideful, arrogant person, thinking we know what to do in every situation. We have put our sense of duty on the throne of our life, instead of enthroning the resurrection life of Jesus. We are not told to “walk in the light” of our conscience or in the light of a sense of duty, but to “walk in the light as He is in the light…” (1 John 1:7).” CHAMBERS

It happens without notice.  At one point we are aware of our need for Jesus in our new life and then we find ourselves living a “reasonably righteous” life on our own. Although we don’t think of it in these terms, “we don’t need Jesus to help us with everyday life … just those things that we can’t fix ourselves.  I can remember one of my granddaughters would push my hands away and say “I can do it myself!”  And that is what we say to Jesus.  The thing is … we cannot … John 14:6 “I am the way and the truth and the life, no one can come to the Father except by Me.”  We think of that in terms of salvation .. but it is much more … Galatians 2:20 says “it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me”  If your close relationship with Jesus has slipped away … you just don’t have the time to spend with Him … you need to repent … you are deceiving yourself.  That is not the life you have been saved to … it is an imitation … “They praise me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.”  (Matthew 15:8) You are living a religious life that has no spiritual power and no spiritual fruit.

Now if you are reading this, what I have written may not apply to you, but you know others that need to be encouraged .. not judged, certainly not condemned … but most certainly reminded of the life that Jesus offers.  ELGIN

Bondye Beni Ou (God Bless You)