May 18, 2010
Teach me your way, O LORD,
and I will walk in your truth;
give me an undivided heart,
that I may fear your name. Psalm 86:11
My dearest Sisters, Loved by the LORD of Life and death,
Three tests before breakfast, "O how loved I am!" And how loved you are, when the Lord is relentless in His molding us into the likeness of His Son! It is then His Word lives and His Spirit convicts of sin and He allows us to be humbled, testing us. We are left pummeled as He is moves us from self-dependence to Christ-dependence. It most-often requires suffering to bring us to the end of ourselves. He is calling us to the Cross. Blessed be the Cross!
Many of us love our Lord knowing we are assured of a blood-bought place in heaven, but few of us take up our cross and follow Him. (For that requires death to self and we side step that more than we want to admit.) Many of us desire comfort and few would choose suffering. We seek to rejoice with Him but avoid suffering embarrassment for His sake. He finds those who gladly share His feast but ignore the Cup.
Jesus said to them. "Can you drink the cup I am going to drink?" Matt 20:22
We gladly confess His name in church, but avoid witnessing at every opportunity. We love Jesus as long it isn't coupled with hardship. We praise as long as we receive comfort from Him. T.K.
As I considered these things I was ashamed. Often my love for Jesus is for my own sake! He waits, longing for me to find my delight in Him. If I am loving Him for His sake and not my own comfort, I will bless Him in trial, even if my heart is in anguish. When He withdraws His comfort, (His 'felt' Presence) teaching me faith-lessons and I struggle with loneliness over this loss, I have a choice... trust Him or not trust Him. My choice determines whether the trials will distract me from loving and enjoying Him.
I am so easily distracted! I pray Psalm 86:11 for myself. I find pain, emotional or physical, is a distraction. Wanting what God has seen fit to withhold or wanting things to be different or for a trial to be over feeds distraction. I find this is the same as doubting His love and care for me. There is no rest in distraction. When my heart is distracted from beholding Christ and His Cross, I am not embracing His purpose for me. I am blatantly refusing my cross and not embracing His Cross allowing self to find rich soil in which to establish a stronghold.
Why do I fear to take up my cross? Is it lack of knowing Him intimately? In my head I know His Cross is life. He has gone before me bearing His Cross. If I die with Him, I will live with Him. Everything depends of the Cross. There is no other way to peace or purpose. No higher way, no safer way. Safety against the enemy. When I take up my cross am I willing to bear the Cross as long as He wills? The flesh will only yield to the Cross. To live a dying life is to live to God. Only where I count myself dead to sin will I know His resurrection life in me. Job cried, "though He slay me, yet will I trust Him". Do I love Him enough to cry out these same words?
The powerful effect of the Cross with God, in heaven, in the blotting out of guilt, and our renewed union with God, is inseparable from the other effect- the breaking down of the authority of sin over man, by the crucifixion of self. Therefore scripture teaches us that the cross not only works out a disposition or desire to make such a sacrifice, but it really bestows the power to do so, and completes the work.- Andrew Murray
Father,
Give us understanding of the Truth of the Cross. Take head knowledge and make it heart knowledge. Make us willing servants. Thank You forbeing a God who is at work in us, both to will and to do of Your good pleasure. Fill our hearts with a burning desire to know You intimately; for then we will embrace Your Cross and our cross. Teach us to count ourselves crucified with Christ, for it is Truth. Thank You for those who have gone on before and have nurtured us with words of Truth. We are Your purchased possession. Cherished and empowered to bring You glory and a lost world hope! Keep us faithful, keep us loving You, Keep us needing You. Keep us believing in the finished work of the Cross. You have defeated the enemy, dealt with our sins and our old sin nature and given us freedom from the power of sin. Calvary is the secret of it all. And for this we praise You. I cry out for You to cause us to Love the Lord our God with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our mind and with all our strength.' I pray in the power of the Name of Jesus, crucified and risen! amen
embracing the Cross,
az
Galatians 6:14
But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
