“. . . and I will give you rest”— that is, “I will sustain you,
causing you to stand firm.” He is not saying, “I will put you to bed, hold your
hand, and sing you to sleep.” But, in essence, He is saying, “I will get you
out of bed— out of your listlessness and exhaustion, and out of your condition
of being half dead while you are still
alive. I will penetrate you with the spirit of life, and you will be
sustained by the perfection of vital activity.” Yet we become so weak and
pitiful and talk about “suffering” the will of the Lord! Where is the majestic
vitality and the power of the Son of God in that?’ CHAMBERS
Isn’t that an odd way to view our lives .. ‘half
dead but still alive’? The life that we
are called to .. the life which we now
live if we are truly Christ followers .. we are to live with our whole
heart. Have you ever used the term
whole-heartedly? It is not used much
anymore …. I think today the popular term is ‘all in’. As many of you already know, it is a term
used in poker.... when
a player goes all in, it means he or she is risking all of the chips the he or
she has on the table.
The single
greatest commandment is to love God whole-heartedly. (Matthew
22:37) The New Testament is replete with encouragement to the Saints (that
would be us) to live a life whole-heartedly for God. We are told about the consequences of living half-heartedly
and reminded of the benefits of surrendering all to Him. Think about
the millions of hours of preaching …. Thousands of books written .. about what …
about living the life that God intended us to live as ‘new creatures in Christ’
(2
Corinthians 5:17)
Isn’t it interesting that God would give us a free
will … the ability to choose … and even when we accept the atoning work of the
cross and confess Jesus as Lord .. saved from our sin, that – even then – we continue
to make the wrong choices. We continue
to focus on the things of this world as the priority … that we are guilty of
praising God with our lips while our hearts are far from Him. (Matthew
15:7) Christians have been living with
.. struggling with this … since Jesus
ascended and the Holy Spirit descended … some more than others … So what is my
point … although we may acknowledge the struggle, we should not become content
with it. We must remember that
2
Corinthians 4:7-10 ‘ […]
we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may
be of God and not of us. We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not
crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not
forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed—always carrying about in the body the
dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our
body.’
God will be glorified through our weakness … that
the world may know that Jesus is the Christ … that He is our Hope … He is our
Redeemer … and He lives …
Let this be your confession and commitment today
.. and every day ..
“O to grace, how great a debtor … Daily I'm
constrained to be … Let Thy goodness,
like a fetter bind my wandering heart to Thee … Prone to wander, Lord I feel it …Prone to leave the God I love … Here's my heart Lord, take and seal it…
Seal it for Thy courts above.” Come Thou
Fount of Every Blessing, Robert
Robinson, 1758
Bondye Beni Ou (God Bless You)
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