Shalom,

I LOVE today's "My Utmost For His Highest" by Oswald Chambers! THIS is SO clear and purely TRUTH!!! 

The Relinquished Life

I am crucified with Christ. — Galatians 2:20

No one is ever united with Jesus Christ until he is willing to relinquish not sin only, but his whole way of looking at things. To be born from above of the Spirit of God means that we must let go before we lay hold, and in the first stages it is the relinquishing of all pretence. What Our Lord wants us to present to Him is not goodness, nor honesty, nor endeavour, but real solid sin; that is all He can take from us. And what does He give in exchange for our sin? Real solid righteousness. But we must relinquish all pretence of being any thing, all claim of being worthy of God’s consideration.

Then the Spirit of God will show us what further there is to relinquish. There will have to be the relinquishing of my claim to my right to myself in every phase. Am I willing to relinquish my hold on all I possess, my hold on my affections, and on everything, and to be identified with the death of Jesus Christ?

There is always a sharp painful disillusionment to go through before we do relinquish. When a man really sees himself as the Lord sees him, it is not the abominable sins of the flesh that shock him, but the awful nature of the pride of his own heart against Jesus Christ. When he sees himself in the light of the Lord, the shame and the horror and the desperate conviction come home.

If you are up against the question of relinquishing, go through the crisis, relinquish all, and God will make you fit for all that He requires of you.

The TRUTH is that WE have NOTHING to bring to the LORD but our reliquishing of everything we THINK is of value to lay hold of what HE has done IN us and FOR us! ANYTHING good in me is of JESUS!!! We already know that our own 'righteousness' is as filthy rags in the sight of the great GOODNESS and RIGHTEOUSNESS of GOD! BUT, JESUS has become as one of us so that WE can become as HE is in the world! It is HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS! HIS WISDOM! HIS GOODNESS! HIS LOVE! EVERYTHING good about us is HIM! HALLELUJAH! I LOVE this song by Hillsong because without JESUS, we are truly as NOTHING! "Search My Heart":

Shalom in Him!