My Utmost For His Highest
“My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be
discouraged when you are rebuked by Him.” —Hebrews 12:5
“It is very easy to grieve the Spirit of God; we do it by
despising the discipline of the Lord, or by becoming discouraged when He
rebukes us. If our experience of being set apart from sin and being made holy
through the process of sanctification is still very shallow, we tend to mistake
the reality of God for something else. And when the Spirit of God gives us a
sense of warning or restraint, we are apt to say mistakenly, “Oh, that must be
from the devil.”[…] Am I fully prepared to allow God to grip me by His power and
do a work in me that is truly worthy of Himself? Sanctification is not my idea
of what I want God to do for me— sanctification is God’s idea of what He wants
to do for me. But He has to get me into the state of mind and spirit where I
will allow Him to sanctify me completely, whatever the cost (see 1
Thessalonians 5:23-24).” CHAMBERS
Do you remember the story of Job? When trouble came to him, his friends were
convinced that he had done something wrong.
Actually he had been doing everything right. There are two kinds of trouble. 1) Trouble
that comes as a form of testing which is meant to refine us and conform us in
the image of Christ. And 2) Trouble that
comes as a consequence of sin. God’s Word
shows us how to live. God’s Spirit enables
us to live that life. But we all know
that a struggle ensues … that struggle is with obedience often resulting in
sin. When we sin, there are
consequences which are as natural as gravity taking effect when we jump out of
bed in the morning. Our feet are going
down, not up. When we act in a way that
is contrary to God’s Word, we must deal with the consequence. Yes, God is faithful to forgive us (1 John
1:9), but He does not generally save us from the consequence. The solution to both types of trouble
is the same .. we must turn to God, repent, and draw close to Him.
The
way of people who choose sin is that they want to make their own choices and
not suffer the consequences. Most of the
time when I am talking to someone who is struggling with an issue, the issue is
really about a consequence … they are not interested in turning from the source
of the consequence. To do that requires
repentance. You really can’t help
someone who does not want to repent.
The story of the prodigal son is a great lesson on
repentance not just forgiveness. (Luke 15:11-32) We have
a tendency to focus on the reception the son received when he went home. And we tend to gloss over the fact that the
son repented from his sin first. He had
suffered the consequence and the father had not intervened. Then the son chose to turn from his sin and
return to the father. It is a hard thing
to watch people you care about struggle with consequences. The father looked to the hill every day with the hope that his son would repent and return, not that his son would return, ask for more money and continue to sin. But you must let them struggle if they are to
repent. Watching people you love struggle with consequences is a test of your faith. Oh, and don't expect to be praised for it .. at least not right away. ELGIN
Bondye Beni Ou (God Bless You)
No comments:
Post a Comment