My Utmost - Oct 6, 2009

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http://www.myutmost.org/10/1006.html

The Bent Of Regeneration

Galations 1:15-16
“When it pleased God... to reveal His Son in me.”

Key Passages

• If Jesus is to regenerate me, what is the problem He is up against?

• I have a heredity I had no say in; I am not holy, nor likely to be; and if all Jesus Christ can do is to tell me I must be holy, His teaching plants despair.

• But if Jesus Christ is a Regenerator, One Who can put into me His own heredity of holiness, then I begin to see what He is driving at when He says that I have to be holy.

• The New Testament teaching about regeneration is that when a man is struck by a sense of need, God will put the Holy Spirit into his spirit, and his personal spirit will be energized by the Spirit of the Son of God, “until Christ be formed in you.”

• When I reach the frontier of need and know my limitations, Jesus says - “Blessed are you.”

My Own Thoughts

That first question is the key for me right now. I am trying to figure out what it is in me that is holding Jesus back from being able to completely regenerate me. More and more I find it to be a sense of selfishness that has sprung up in me. I have grown accustomed to getting things my way when I want them, and if I don't get what I want I complain about it until I do. I am good at that. I have a sense of entitlement that I am having trouble shaking. A sense of entitlement to myself, my time, my own desires. I want to do what I want to do. What I am being shown increasingly by the Holy Spirit is that I am not my own, but I belong to Him for His purposes. I need to get out of the way and let go of all I am holding onto. Much easier said than done.

Dear Heavenly Father, I praise you for your gentle Spirit pointing out where you need to me to let go. I praise you for the fact that you created me and know me better than I can even know myself. I pray that your will would be done in my life Lord, as you want it done. Help me to let go of myself and to let go of this sense of entitlement. Forgive me for my selfishness Lord. I confess it to you now.