Being Content In A Place You Prefer Not To Be

My Utmost For His Highest

 

…come, follow Me. —Luke 18:22

 

“Where our individual desire dies and sanctified surrender lives. One of the greatest hindrances in coming to Jesus is the excuse of our own individual temperament. We make our temperament and our natural desires barriers to coming to Jesus. Yet the first thing we realize when we do come to Jesus is that He pays no attention whatsoever to our natural desires. We have the idea that we can dedicate our gifts to God. […] There is actually only one thing you can dedicate to God, and that is your right to yourself (see Romans 12:1). […] The one true mark of a saint of God is the inner creativity that flows from being totally surrendered to Jesus Christ. […] A saint realizes that it is God who engineers his circumstances; consequently there are no complaints, only unrestrained surrender to Jesus. […] You will go out into the world reproducing the echo of Christ’s “Come.” That is the result in every soul who has abandoned all and come to Jesus.”  CHAMBERS

 

Do you make excuses for your sin nature? “Well, that is just the way that I am”, I have heard Christians say when trying to justify why they behave in a certain way or respond to people in a certain way.  A way that is clearly contrary to Spirit.  What the person is really saying is, this is something that is a part of me and it will not change.  Perhaps they have been trying to change it.  Perhaps not. Whatever the case, we should not make excuses for those things that come from the flesh. (Galatians 5:19-21)  Following Jesus means abandoning everything that is part of our old nature.  If we are unkind toward others, that is not coming from the Spirit.  If we speak harshly, in a hurtful way, that is not from the Spirit.  But you already know that don’t you?  Are you in a situation, that is not a result of your sin, that you wish you were not in?  Do you remember the story of the mount of transfiguration? (Luke 9:28-33)  The disciples wanted to stay on the mountain, but they had to go back to the valley.  They were not the ones who decided what was going to happen.  They were following the One who decided that.  Yet, even then, Jesus was obedient to the Father’s will, not His own. Where does God have you right now.  Are you trusting in Him or trying to figure out how you can find a better place?  Be obedient where you are, and trust God.  I am writing this encouragement to myself more than to you.  My words come back to me.  When we were in Mississippi after Katrina, someone asked me if I liked being in Mississippi, in the middle of a disaster area.  After thinking about the question, no one had asked me that before, I responded, “There is no better place than being in the center of God’s will, geography has nothing to do with it. So, yes, I love being here.”  God continues to take us to places that need the light of Christ to shine.  The geography, the economy, the culture are irrelevant.  The message, “Jesus Saves” is all that is relevant. And He still does. CHARLEY