Time with God

My Utmost For His Highest

“To be surrendered to God is of more value than our personal holiness.” Chambers

Many if not most Christians spend their lives trying to “be” a Christian by doing the right things or not doing the wrong things.  ’  But the core of our Christian life is about a relationship not about works.  Someone once said, ‘we are called human beings not human doings for a reason.' It is about surrendering our lives to the Lord not about trying to be good.  God loves us and wants a relationship with us, not just compliance.  Do you know what my wife’s and my greatest joy is?  To be with each other. God doesn’t want us to live a certain way because we have to as Christians … but because it is a natural result of our relationship with Him.  Jesus said, “I am the vine and you are the branches.  Apart from me, you can do nothing”  John 15:5  Living this new life is about relationship, first and fruit or right behavior flowing from that relationship … God is about changing us from the inside out .. and that change happens when I cultivate my realtionship with Him. 

We can’t be who God intended us to be by trying harder. We use a lot of portable drills in our work here in Haiti.  We refer to them as “screw guns” because we most often use them to put screws into wood.  Well imagine that I ask you to put some three inch screws into some lumber.  I give you the screw gun and the screws, but no battery.  So you have to use the tool like a manual screw driver.  Turning the whole thing by hand .. it might take you 30 minutes to put one screw in the wood … But now imagine that I give you the battery … now it takes 10 seconds to put that same screw in the board.

That is like difference between doing things on your own and being surrendered to God.  “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.” Philippians 4:13

 I am reminded of a song that goes,  “I come to the garden alone While the dew is still on the roses And the voice I hear falling on my ear The Son of God discloses. And He walks with me, and He talks with me, And He tells me I am His own; And the joy we share as we tarry there, None other has ever known.” 

So spend some time with God today. You will be glad you did.

Bondye Beni Ou (God Bless You)