Tuesday, May 24, 2016

It's Time To Stop Trying Harder And Start Faithing Harder

My Utmost For His Highest
 
When I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. —Revelation 1:17
 
“You experience this joy in hopelessness, realizing that if you are ever to be raised up it must be by the hand of God.[…] Whenever His hand is laid upon you, it gives inexpressible peace and comfort, and the sense that “underneath are the everlasting arms” (Deuteronomy 33:27), full of support, provision, comfort, and strength. And once His touch comes, nothing at all can throw you into fear again. In the midst of all His ascended glory, the Lord Jesus comes to speak to an insignificant disciple, saying, “Do not be afraid” (Revelation 1:17). His tenderness is inexpressibly sweet. Do I know Him like that?[…]  I delight in knowing that there is something in me which must fall prostrate before God when He reveals Himself to me, and also in knowing that if I am ever to be raised up it must be by the hand of God. God can do nothing for me until I recognize the limits of what is humanly possible, allowing Him to do the impossible.”  CHAMBERS
 
What brought you to the point where you knew that Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life?  The point where you acknowledged Him as Lord, received the Holy Spirit as an act of faith. (Ephesians 2:8,9) Saved by grace and not by works.  You knew that there was nothing you could do, that Jesus was and is and ever will be the answer.  Do you remember?  It’s difficult to keep that fresh in your mind.  To rekindle the emotion of the moment.  The emotion that was a result of your act of faith, and not the reason for your profession.  If emotion and not faith is the seed of our profession, there will be no fruit.  For someone to say, I have always been a Christian stands against (Romans 10:9) in that we must confess with our mouths and believe in our hearts.  We may not remember the day, hour and minute, but we will remember the moment.  For someone to say “I don’t remember when I did that”, is to say “I did not do that, I did it another way.” There is a world of difference between being religious (go to church, say the right things, read the Bible, do the right things, have a form of godliness) and being a Christian.  The difference is Jesus.  (Matthew 7:21-23)  ““Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’  Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’”
 
We are saved by grace not works.  We are not saved because of our good works.  We do good works because we are saved.  Two people can do the same thing, for one, there is spiritual power in the act, for the other, there is not.  The world sees no difference.  And yet, there is.  On the one hand a person does because they have God’s favor because of Jesus, on the other the person does with the hope that they somehow will find God’s favor without Jesus. We must understand and accept the limits of our natural ability and embrace the limitlessness of our super-natural ability in Christ. Bottom line, you need to stop trying harder and start “faithing” harder. CHARLEY

No comments: