For Your Good and His Glory

My Utmost For His Highest

 

“Jesus . . . said to him, ’One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor . . . and come, take up the cross, and follow Me’”—Mark 10:21

 

“The rich young ruler had the controlling passion to be perfect. When he saw Jesus Christ, he wanted to be like Him. Our Lord never places anyone’s personal holiness above everything else when He calls a disciple. Jesus’ primary consideration is my absolute annihilation of my right to myself and my identification with Him, which means having a relationship with Him in which there are no other relationships. Luke 14:26 [ “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple.”]  has nothing to do with salvation or sanctification, but deals solely with unconditional identification with Jesus Christ. Very few of us truly know what is meant by the absolute “go” of unconditional identification with, and abandonment and surrender to, Jesus.

 

“Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him . . .” (Mark 10:21). This look of Jesus will require breaking your heart away forever from allegiance to any other person or thing. Has Jesus ever looked in this way at you? This look of Jesus transforms, penetrates, and captivates. Where you are soft and pliable with God is where the Lord has looked at you. If you are hard and vindictive, insistent on having your own way, and always certain that the other person is more likely to be in the wrong than you are, then there are whole areas of your nature that have never been transformed by His gaze.” CHAMBERS

 

We must be careful when we share our story with people.  They seem to zero in on what we have “lost” and not what we have gained. The point of the rich young ruler is not about possessions.  It is about devotion and dependence.  The young man trusted more in money that in the Lord.  I think people, particularly people in the United States, see abandoning possessions as the epitome of spirituality … it is far from that … it is merely s condition of the heart and a necessity to go where the Lord leads.  The physical release of possessions is not the point.  The point is a change of heart where your trust shifts to the Lord and not what you can do or have.

 

From the beginning of your walk with the Lord, there has been a transforming work happening .. some growth is slow, some happens very quickly .. the rate of growth is a function of your willingness to release those things that you trust more than the Lord.  But we are all being shaped by God … conformed to the image of Christ.  2 Corinthians 5:17 “old things are passing away, all things are becoming new”  To live for Christ is to die to yourself.  When they Lord confronts you over a condition in your heart … don’t walk away sad … but embrace it .. yield to it … walk in it .. it's for your good and for His glory. ELGIN

 

Bondye Beni Ou (God Bless You)