For to me, to live is Christ...
Luke 9:62 - No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the Kingdom of God.
Me? Look back? Never! I prayed fervently for God to mold me, this unworthy lump of clay. I was so eager to serve!
Of course, in my eagerness, I didn't realize that there are things other than 'looking back' which would render me equally unfit for service in God's Kingdom. Chief among these is not having my eyes firmly fixed on Christ.
Sure, my hands were on the plow and I was looking ahead. But I wasn't looking to Christ, wasn't waiting for His instructions. I was too eager to get things done, and in my enthusiasm, I rushed ahead blindly, relying on my own strength and foolish wisdom.
I told God that I would follow wherever He led, but when the road diverged and I was asked to tread the lonely path, I disobeyed. The human heart is deceptive indeed - I convinced myself that God didn't really say 'No'. I deliberately went 'deaf'.
Obviously, in the course of this battle between Self and the Cross, I lost. God, in His loving grace, took away that which was precious to me, my heartfelt desire, the weed which entangled my feet.
I was heartbroken. With the luxury of hindsight, though, I am thankful that He has done so. I wasn't looking back, but I was certainly delayed by that weed!
I couldn't serve properly unless I was thoroughly purified and refined, unless I was a living sacrifice. And to be a sacrifice, I had to surrender my ALL to Christ - hopes, dreams, fears, desires.
As Lilias Trotter so beautifully put it - 'The first step into the realm of giving is a surrender - not manward but Godward: an utter yielding of our best. So long as our idea of surrender is limited to the renouncing of unlawful things, we have never grasped its true meaning.'
Elisabeth Elliot reaffirmed this truth - ' Until the will and the affections are brought under the authority of Christ, we have not begun to understand, let alone to accept, His Lordship.'
I could never fully live for Christ until and unless I had died to Self! This means offering up to God all which I hold dear. It requires that I set aside my own selfish wants, that I trust my heavenly Father to guide each step of my life in the full belief that He knows best.
I was my own worst enemy in my walk with God, robbing myself with my own ideas of what was good for me - Eve's wisdom.
There is a satire: God found the devil sobbing and asked him why. Satan replied sadly that human beings were blaming him for the things they did, which he wasn't responsible for in the first place.
In truth, though, I think God should be the One weeping. Satan would just laugh, happy that he doesn't have to lift a finger, because we prevent ourselves from building the kind of relationship with God which He intends us to have.
Me? Look back? Never! I prayed fervently for God to mold me, this unworthy lump of clay. I was so eager to serve!
Of course, in my eagerness, I didn't realize that there are things other than 'looking back' which would render me equally unfit for service in God's Kingdom. Chief among these is not having my eyes firmly fixed on Christ.
Sure, my hands were on the plow and I was looking ahead. But I wasn't looking to Christ, wasn't waiting for His instructions. I was too eager to get things done, and in my enthusiasm, I rushed ahead blindly, relying on my own strength and foolish wisdom.
I told God that I would follow wherever He led, but when the road diverged and I was asked to tread the lonely path, I disobeyed. The human heart is deceptive indeed - I convinced myself that God didn't really say 'No'. I deliberately went 'deaf'.
Obviously, in the course of this battle between Self and the Cross, I lost. God, in His loving grace, took away that which was precious to me, my heartfelt desire, the weed which entangled my feet.
I was heartbroken. With the luxury of hindsight, though, I am thankful that He has done so. I wasn't looking back, but I was certainly delayed by that weed!
I couldn't serve properly unless I was thoroughly purified and refined, unless I was a living sacrifice. And to be a sacrifice, I had to surrender my ALL to Christ - hopes, dreams, fears, desires.
As Lilias Trotter so beautifully put it - 'The first step into the realm of giving is a surrender - not manward but Godward: an utter yielding of our best. So long as our idea of surrender is limited to the renouncing of unlawful things, we have never grasped its true meaning.'
Elisabeth Elliot reaffirmed this truth - ' Until the will and the affections are brought under the authority of Christ, we have not begun to understand, let alone to accept, His Lordship.'
I could never fully live for Christ until and unless I had died to Self! This means offering up to God all which I hold dear. It requires that I set aside my own selfish wants, that I trust my heavenly Father to guide each step of my life in the full belief that He knows best.
I was my own worst enemy in my walk with God, robbing myself with my own ideas of what was good for me - Eve's wisdom.
There is a satire: God found the devil sobbing and asked him why. Satan replied sadly that human beings were blaming him for the things they did, which he wasn't responsible for in the first place.
In truth, though, I think God should be the One weeping. Satan would just laugh, happy that he doesn't have to lift a finger, because we prevent ourselves from building the kind of relationship with God which He intends us to have.
posted by sleepypurplepiglet at 2:25 PM
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