My Utmost - Sept 25, 2009

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http://www.myutmost.org/09/0925.html

The “Go” Of Relationship

Matthew 5:41
“And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain.”

Key Passages

• The summing up of Our Lord's teaching is that the relationship which He demands is an impossible one unless He has done a supernatural work in us.

• No enthusiasm will ever stand the strain that Jesus Christ will put upon His worker, only one thing will, and that is a personal relationship to Himself...

• … I am here for God to send me where He will.

• The Sermon on the Mount is not an ideal, it is a statement of what will happen in me when Jesus Christ has altered my disposition and put in a disposition like His own.

• “I have chosen you.” That is the way grace begins. It is a constraint we cannot get away from; we can disobey it, but we cannot generate it.

My Own Thoughts

That first line “The summing up...” is a bit of a relief to me, as well as a point of anxiety. The idea that the life God wants me to live is impossible without Him doing an amazing work in me brings me relief because I think “no wonder this is so hard, I am trying to do it all myself.” At the same time it causes me anxiety because I wonder if God is trying to perform that supernatural act in me that would make the life He desires for me to live a possibility, but I am holding it back somehow. Either consciously, or subconsciously.

I have seen myself crash on so many instances when I got all fired up for God, like I was going to go out there and save the world. The reason I always crash is because I come back down to earth and the realization that the life God wants for me to live is a very difficult life to live... when I am trying to do it myself. I need that supernatural act from God.

I believe God has chosen me. For that I am unbelievably grateful that His grace is enough for me and for my salvation.

Dear Father in Heaven... You are amazing, all sufficient, and graceful. Even to someone like me. Undeserving of your grace and your call on my life. Work your will out through me and around me. Don't let enthusiasm be my downfall, but strengthen me through it and show me how to truly let myself go and allow you to work through me.