God is able to use all of our circumstances as potter’s hands, even our misunderstandings, mistakes, and wanderings. And to even speak such a thing may cause many to feel uncomfortable, even a knee-jerk reaction to defend God and His narrow path, “Never should we wander! Never should such a thing be done among God’s elect!” But we do. Oh beloved, the truth is that sometimes we do wander off that path, but that is not the true tragedy. The true tragedy is that when we do, we still think we are on it because we are doing all the things right.
What I am confessing to you today, is that one of the hardest areas for me to put my faith in, was God’s sovereign dealings with His own children. But once I did that, I found true rest in my Lord. A rest that is promised when we trust in Him utterly and completely, and that includes His sovereign ability to build His own church—as He teaches us the ability to wait on Him, on His direction, His words and instructions—in utter faith that He will give them to us. And it is not God’s will for us to wander from the very narrow path, no indeed, but that narrowness involves much more than simply our death to sin and its decreasing appearance in our lives. The narrowness of God’s path is defined by the measurement of one crossbeam of wood, and the crucifixion of our flesh includes everything—even our own notions of goodness.
At Matt 19:16-26, the rich young ruler asks Jesus what “good thing must I do” to have eternal life? And Jesus gives him a two-part answer that has more to do with the young man’s heart, than his actual physical possessions. The first part of Jesus’ answer is, “There is only One Who is good, but if you wish to enter life, keep the commandments.” That is because the entrance to the way of God is to recognize our sin and desire to turn away from it, and we do that by repenting. Jesus is indeed the door, but we walk through that door by an act of faith-motivated repentance.
However, when we turn away from something, we must necessarily turn toward something else. And that is the second part of Jesus’ answer, where He says but “if you wish to be complete, go sell all you have…and come follow Me.” The willful desire to turn away from sin is merely the first step, the rest of the narrow path is the death of self as we follow Jesus Christ and He forms Himself and His own goodness in us to make us complete in Him. And that means we can bring no possessions with us, including our religion, our opinions, and our flawed reason—everything is put to death on that cross, and I do mean everything.
Oswald Chambers says it this way: “ ‘Sell all that thou hast’ — undress yourself morally before God of everything that might be a possession until you are a mere conscious human being, and then give God that. That is where the battle is fought — in the domain of the will before God. Are you more devoted to your idea of what Jesus wants than to Himself?” When God brought me to a place of repentance, He showed me that I was more rich in my notion of what I thought Jesus wanted, rather than Jesus Himself. But Jesus tells us what true riches are according to heaven: “Sell all that you have—all that you are and all that you think you are—and die on this cross with Me, let Me complete My holy work in you, let Me tell you who you are, let Me teach you what I want, and then pour yourself out to the spiritually destitute.” (Matt 19:21).
Beloved, we mustn’t make the mistake that God’s religious teachers made the first time Jesus came, which was to assume that when He called for repentance, He was speaking to everyone but us.
(Gal 2:20) I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.
(Phil 3:7-9) But whatever was gain to me I count as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things as loss compared to the surpassing excellence of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for Whom I have lost all things. I consider them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God on the basis of faith.
(Jer 9:23,24) This is what the Lord says: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, nor the strong man in his strength, nor the wealthy man in his riches. But let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the LORD, who exercises loving devotion, justice and righteousness on the earth—for I delight in these things,” declares the LORD.
(John 15:4-6) Remain in Me, and I will remain in you. Just as no branch can bear fruit by itself unless it remains in the vine, neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in Me. I am the vine and you are the branches. The one who remains in Me, and I in him, will bear much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in Me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers. Such branches are gathered up, thrown into the fire, and burned.
(Posted on Facebook 2/9/2021 Talitha Koum)
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