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September 20, 2024
- By Ed Powell
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"If you know these things, happy are you if you do them." John 13:17
How deceiving our hearts are. With great intent and motive, we seek, with all our innermost being, to form the mold that will pattern our life. We plan our future as if we had divine knowledge for doing so. We train and prepare to ends that we have conceived, and set our sails to accomplish. We rely upon our past to guide us to our future. We seek refuge in modes of strength we enjoyed in yesteryear. We rely upon the methods of success that we enjoyed during our past encounters. It seems we are continually seeking refuge in the past, much of which is good and can be beneficial, but often, it becomes the "crutch" on which we lean and seek support, rather than stretching our faith and vision to new horizons that will challenge the reality of our personal relationship with God, opening up our hearts to what HE wants to do in and through us...beyond our capabilities.
God waits for us to cease from looking back to the past to what we have done, or what we were, to when, in child-like faith, we will fix our eyes on Him, so HE can make us what He wants us to be--"something we have never been!" Such resignation of heart and the "fix of our faith" will bring us into a measure of reality of the greatness of God. He gives us a glimpse of WHO HE IS!
The boundaries that we have placed, that have encompassed our lives, are suddenly lost in the light of His presence. HE becomes the focus of our lives...the consuming vision we have never entertained in our finite reasoning...the ONE who now "controls" our destiny. HE puts within our hearts the desire and faith to be all HE wants us to be...nothing less! It is then the reigns of our life are turned over to ONE who can mold and shape our lives to something we have never been--a choice vessel for His glory, a channel through which the Holy Spirit can move freely and fully, empowering, leading, revealing, enlightening, and being to us the strength and sufficiency beyond ourselves. We have been consumed by ONE outside of ourselves...no longer limited to "our" gifts, talents, strength, and ability. Our lives now venture into realms that speak of eternal values and fruitful results! It is His life living in us without selfish restrictions. Free in Christ...empowered by His Spirit within...living under His lordship and authority. How glorious!
Thus He begins to mold our lives, cutting us loose from the moorings of self-interests and self-concern. He enlarges our vision to launch out into the uncharted waters by faith, that we might see His wonders in the deep. Our fierce intense feelings give way to implicit obedience, to present our bodies a living sacrifice to God, to an infilling of His love and grace in measures we never experienced before. Our spiritual destiny is now under His direction, no longer looking back to what we once were, but now moving in the excitement of an unrestrained faith in the ONE that never fails...and in an anticipation of letting God make us "something we have never been"...to the praise of His glory.
O, that our desire and vision reach out beyond ourselves to entrust our lives to His providential care. It is not for us to limit reason to our understanding: this is living in the natural carnal nature we inherited at birth. We have been "born again" by the supernatural power of God and have been made a new creation in Christ. Surrendering to His lordship enables us to live a "supernatural" life, empowered and directed by God Himself...a life that draws its strength, direction, and power from ONE without, WHO lives within. His purpose is to radically change our lives from who we are and bring us into a relationship with Him that we have never experienced before..."to be something we have never been!" HOW BLESSED!
© 2007 by Ed Powell. Used by permission.
This page was reprinted by permission from: http://litmin.org/dare.php?date=2024-09-20&print=1
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