excerpt from My Utmost for His Highest, June 11th:
Where sin and sorrow stops, and the song of the saint starts. Do I really want to get there? I can right now. The questions that truly matter in life are remarkably few, and they are all answered by these words— “Come to Me.” Our Lord’s words are not, “Do this, or don’t do that,” but— “Come to me.” If I will simply come to Jesus, my real life will be brought into harmony with my real desires. I will actually cease from sin, and will find the song of the Lord beginning in my life.
Have you ever come to Jesus? Look at the stubbornness of your heart. You would rather do anything than this one simple childlike thing— “Come to Me.” If you really want to experience ceasing from sin, you must come to Jesus.
[...] Personal contact with Jesus changes everything. Be “foolish” enough to come and commit yourself to what He says. The attitude necessary for you to come to Him is one where your will has made the determination to let go of everything and deliberately commit it all to Him (italics added because it resonates with me).
“. . . and I will give you rest”— that is, “I will sustain you, causing you to stand firm.” He is not saying, “I will put you to bed, hold your hand, and sing you to sleep.” But, in essence, He is saying, “I will get you out of bed— out of your listlessness and exhaustion, and out of your condition of being half dead while you are still alive. I will penetrate you with the spirit of life, and you will be sustained by the perfection of vital activity.”
This is one of the more applicable entries in the entire devotional for myself. I get very caught up in trying to keep the Law without recognition of Jesus, grace, reconciliation, etc., that I just "try" and "do" and "perform" to the point of my own personal exhaustion. I attempt to reconcile myself to God without the bridge of Christ/grace. And as a result, I burn out and nothing changes. BUT, the good news of the gospel of grace is that all we all called to "do", is come to Jesus; He does the rest. All He wants is US...a relationship. It's amazing (grace)! In coming to Jesus, we are actively exercising our God-given will to deliberately let go of everything else. That's where we make the choice.
It's at this point that things get difficult, fear sets in, and our hands might clasp. So, we have to keep in mind that the God of the universe is in control of it all and always has been. For me, the most encouraging and comforting attribute of God is His goodness. (I feel myself starting to ramble, so I'll try to keep it in line).
-God is good
-God loves us
-God "shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us", and it's only through his grace (i.e., his FREE GIFT) that we are even saved! Praise God things aren't dependent upon me or my own doing.
Ramble complete, but I'll sign off with this well-known passage in Ephesians. I think it sums it up well. God is good.
"But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."- Ephesians 2:5-10
Thank you for your goodness. Thank you for your grace.
