The first thing I must be willing to admit when I begin to examine what controls and dominates me is that I am the one responsible for having yielded myself to whatever it may be. If I am a slave to myself, I am to blame because somewhere in the past I yielded to myself. Likewise, if I obey God I do so because at some point in my life I yielded myself to Him. If a child gives in to selfishness, he will find it to be the most enslaving tyranny on earth. There is no power within the human soul itself that is capable of breaking the bondage of the nature created by yielding. For example, yield for one second to anything in the nature of lust, and although you may hate yourself for having yielded, you become enslaved to that thing. (Remember what lust is— “I must have it now,” whether it is the lust of the flesh or the lust of the mind.) No release or escape from it will ever come from any human power, but only through the power of redemption. You must yield yourself in utter humiliation to the only One who can break the dominating power in your life, namely, the Lord Jesus Christ. CHAMBERS
Is there something in your life that controls you? What I mean is, that when it rises up in you, there seems to be nothing you can do but submit to it? Even it is contrary to your physical or mental or relational well-being you cannot seem to resist its power. That is the bondage that Chambers is referring to. Try as you might .. you can’t seem to break its hold on your life. Did you catch what he said … ‘No release or escape from it will ever come from any human power’ … you can’t understand your way out of it … you need to give it to God … Now what does that mean you might ask.
Don’t you just love the way that people throw these pat answers at you when you are looking for lasting answers .. something that works? 1 Peter 5:7 says ‘Cast all your cares upon me because I care for you.’ Philippians 4:6,7 says ‘Be anxious for nothing, but in everything let your requests be made know to God … ‘ Giving something to anyone means approaching them and handing whatever it is to them. It was in my hand and now it is in theirs. It was mine now it’s not. Where does the humility come in? We are not giving it to just anybody … we are giving it to a holy God … we are saying, I can’t do this … it’s time to lay my pride aside and admit my failure to the God of heaven. Find your strength in your relationship with Him .. if that relationship is weak .. it is time to strengthen it. You can overcome the things that hold you in bondage, but not without God’s help. Draw near to God …. Do it today ….
I pray this with Paul for you ….
For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height--to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
(Ephesians 3:14-21)
Bondye Beni Ou (God Bless You)
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