Today's "My Utmost For His Highest" by Oswald Chambers is EXCELLENT!
All Noble Things Are
Difficult
Enter ye in at the strait gate…: because strait is the gate, and
narrow is the way…. — Matthew 7:13-14
If we
are going to live as disciples of Jesus, we have to remember that all noble
things are difficult. The Christian life is gloriously difficult, but the
difficulty of it does not make us faint and cave in, it rouses us up to
overcome. Do we so appreciate the marvellous salvation of Jesus Christ that we
are our utmost for His highest?
God
saves men by His sovereign grace through the Atonement of Jesus; He works in us
to will and to do of His good pleasure; but we have to work out that salvation
in practical living. If once we start on the basis of His Redemption to do what
He commands, we find that we can do it. If we fail, it is because we have not
practised. The crisis will reveal whether we have been practising or not. If we
obey the Spirit of God and practise in our physical life what God has put in us
by His Spirit, then when the crisis comes, we shall find that our own nature as
well as the grace of God will stand by us.
Thank
God He does give us difficult things to do! His salvation is a glad thing, but
it is also a heroic, holy thing. It tests us for all we are worth. Jesus is
bringing many “sons unto glory,” and God will not shield us from the
requirements of a son. God’s grace turns out men and women with a strong family
likeness to Jesus Christ, not milk sops. It takes a tremendous amount of
discipline to live the noble life of a disciple of Jesus in actual things. It
is always necessary to make an effort to be noble.
I LOVE that God is making us STRONG - IN HIM - and not 'milksops'! a milksop is: a weak or ineffectual person. God did NOT make us to be one such as that! HE causes us to be able to all things, through Himself! Look at Philippians 4:13:
13 I have strength for all things in Christ Who empowers me [I am ready for anything and equal to anything through Him Who infuses inner strength into me; I am self-sufficient in Christ’s sufficiency].
You and I must begin to SEE ourselves accomplishing the dreams and goals that GOD has put in our hearts because WE love HIM and delight in Him! AMEN! Here is Hillsong UNITED with "Life":
Shalom in Him!
