I really love today's "My Utmost For His Highest" by Oswald Chambers.
The Ministry of the Inner Life
You are…a royal priesthood… —1 Peter 2:9
By what right have we become “a royal priesthood”? It is by
the right of the atonement by the Cross of Christ that this has been
accomplished. Are we prepared to purposely disregard ourselves and to launch
out into the priestly work of prayer? The continual inner-searching we do in an
effort to see if we are what we ought to be generates a self-centered, sickly
type of Christianity, not the vigorous and simple life of a child of God. Until
we get into this right and proper relationship with God, it is simply a case of
our “hanging on by the skin of our teeth,” although we say, “What a wonderful
victory I have!” Yet there is nothing at all in that which indicates the
miracle of redemption. Launch out in reckless, unrestrained belief that the
redemption is complete. Then don’t worry anymore about yourself, but begin to
do as Jesus Christ has said, in essence, “Pray for the friend who comes to you
at midnight, pray for the saints of God, and pray for all men.” Pray with the
realization that you are perfect only in Christ Jesus, not on the basis of this
argument: “Oh, Lord, I have done my best; please hear me now.”
How long is it going to take God to free us from the
unhealthy habit of thinking only about ourselves? We must get to the point of
being sick to death of ourselves, until there is no longer any surprise at
anything God might tell us about ourselves. We cannot reach and understand the
depths of our own meagerness. There is only one place where we are right with
God, and that is in Christ Jesus. Once we are there, we have to pour out our
lives for all we are worth in this ministry of the inner life.
What is being discussed here is the religious idea that we must look, sound and act like a "good Christian"! That means that we have to constantly be thinking about how others perceive our behavior. That is NOT how our Heavenly Father desires for us to act! HE desires that we really come to KNOW HIM! When we do, then we will REALLY come to know who WE ARE - IN HIM! THAT is what pleases the Father the most! Let's be like Paul again and make it our determined purpose to KNOW HIM (JESUS) more every day than we did the day before! In this way HIS ways will become our ways naturally, rather than a show that we put on for the benefit of those who are, and look for, religious actions! Instead, we will look like JESUS to the world! AMEN! Here is Hillsong with "No One But You":
Shalom in Him!
