My Utmost - Sept 20, 2009

Go here first...
http://www.myutmost.org/09/0920.html

The Divine Rule Of Life

Matthew 5:48
“Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.”

Key Passages

• “If we walk in the light as God is in the light,” God will give us communion with people for whom we have no natural affinity.

• To be a disciple means that we deliberately identify ourselves with God's interests in other people. “That ye love one another; as I have loved you...”

• The expression of Christian character is not good doing, but God-likeness.

• God's life in us expresses itself as God's life, not as human life trying to be godly.

• The secret of the Christian is that the supernatural is made natural in him by the grace of God, and the experience of this works out in the practical details of life, not in times of communion with God.

My Own Thoughts

“God will give us communion with people for whom we have no natural affinity”... boy thats funny. I was just a family reunion today :) Just kidding. But it brings up a good point and one that I struggle with constantly and I am sure that many of us all struggle with. Communing (hanging out with) people that we would never hang out with naturally. I am not good at this at all. I like to stick to the people that make me comfortable, and when one person who might be a little “off” comes along, I avoid them like the plague, or better yet, I pick up on their weirdness and make fun of them. Maybe not to anyone else other than myself, but even then, I do it. I am a jerk. Nice to meet you.

I need this saving ability of the Holy Spirit to change my perceptions on people. Sometimes I am open to the Spirit and I feel like I can be used anywhere. However other days, I would much rather not interact with anyone I find to be different, than to have to do the hard work of letting go of everything thing I am gripping and letting the Spirit take over.

What a great relief it would be to let the Spirit have control of me. “God's life in us expresses itself as God's life, not as human life trying to be godly.” No more trying. I long for the natural flow of the Holy Spirit through me. Come Spirit, wake me. I've been sleeping.