It is not a question of whether God is willing to sanctify me; is it my will? Am I willing to let God do in me all that has been made possible by the Atonement? Am I willing to let Jesus be made sanctification to me, and to let the life of Jesus be manifested in my mortal flesh? Beware of saying - Oh, I am longing to be sanctified. You are not, stop longing and make it a matter of transaction - "Nothing in my hands I bring." Receive Jesus Christ to be made sanctification to you in implicit faith, and the great marvel of the Atonement of Jesus will be made real in you. All that Jesus made possible is made mine by the free loving gift of God on the ground of what He performed, my attitude as a saved and sanctified soul is that of profound humble holiness (there is no such thing as proud holiness), a holiness based on agonizing repentance and a sense of unspeakable shame and degradation; and also on the amazing realization that the love of God commended itself to me in that while I cared nothing about Him, He completed everything for my salvation and sanctification. No wonder Paul says nothing is "able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." ~Oswald Chambers
Man that guy can read my mail. If you have never done a year with "My Utmost for His Highest" I would recommend it. This morning it hit me like a ton of bricks. Agony of repentance...unspeakable shame - all replaced by His love for me. That even as we stumble through the process of reconciliation and sanctification...He is continuing to pour out His love usually faster than we are able to receive it. We cry, we hold on to the pain, the broken parts...but rarely do we reach out for the love that he purposes for us. That he wants to give us so freely. He never backs up, he never is always there...just waiting for us to realize His extravagance.
My earthly Father has to love me through his own pain. His own feable attempts at reconciliation. He can't love me, he doesn't receive the love and God and without it we are unable to love anyone else. God is love, without Him we just have a sense of responsibility for the warfare of. We just care deeply, but we can't love someone through their sins, through the hard places, unless He has filled us. It is because He first loved us that we are able to love others.
When we face trials, when more sin is revealed, when God puts His finger on the next layer and the process begins all over again, it is then that we are taught humility. That again, we needed corrected, again He wants to love us through a clean love and not through our filters. I think the lesson learned, is that He cares more about my position in Him than my circumstances. I think back to David, he consistantly fell but would fall towards God. God honored him. In 1 Kings 14 we are told by God himself that David followed God with all his heart. Even as David sinned God loved him and David allowed God to reconcile him to Himself.
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation." ~2 Corinthians 5:17-19
Lord, hear my prayer this morning. In the words of King David, “Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.” Lord, I long for the joy. Lord, all I am is yours. Only you can satisfy me. I am not longer content with happy...happy is for everyone...I want joy. Overflowing out of my heart, contageously. Thank you Father, for the ministry of reconciliation. That we don't have to walk around the living dead. That in you there is eternal life, eternal love and eternal joy. Bless you...I love you. In the Name of Jesus I pray. Amen.
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