These thoughts from Tozer....ring so true....when will we stop trying to do, think, say, the right thing ....and let Him ....Jesus....do, think, say, the right thing He would. We get so bent out of shape if anyone has an opinion that may be contrary to ours or....heaven forbid....are contrary to us personally....ewwww......what of it.......Jesus can handle this and if we are offended.... maybe it isn't Him showing Himself through us....we might be in the way....you think? It might be Jesus in the other person...speaking to my flesh....hmmm ...there's a thought....Pondering away another Friday night.
Trials and Pain: The Labor of Self-love
For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men?
For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ. Galatians 1:10
The labor of self-love is a heavy one indeed. Think for yourself whether much of your sorrow has not arisen from someone speaking slightingly of you. As long as you set yourself up as a little god to which you must be loyal there will be those who will delight to offer affront to your idol. How then can you hope to have inward peace?
The heart's fierce effort to protect itself from every slight, to shield its touchy honor from the bad opinion of friend and enemy, will never let the mind have rest. Continue this fight through the years and the burden will become intolerable.
Yet the sons of earth are carrying this burden continually, challenging every word spoken against them, cringing under every criticism, smarting under each fancied slight, tossing sleepless if another is preferred before them.Such a burden as this is not necessary to bear. Jesus calls us to His rest, and meekness is His method.
The meek man cares not at all who is greater than he, for he has long ago decided that the esteem of the world is not worth the effort.
The Pursuit of God, 112."
3 comments:
There is an irony I believe happens. . . when we come to the end of self, we realize our true value in Him and how precious we are. So getting over ourselves permits us to see how precious we are.
Right you are RoG...if I didn't know that to Him....I am precious and so loved beyond anything I have ever even imagined...even the best of what I could possibly think...I don't think - keep going on- my flesh is just too corrupted - would be an issue. That is what gives me the impetus to give over everything to Him....I do wish my obedience level was in direct relation to my conviction level on this .....but this 'mess in the process' is truly beginning to realize how very intense His care for me....really is. It thrills me...but it also scares me...it brings me to my knees...at times trembling at the enormity of it all. This Love that is Him.
Always and only because of Him,
' "Now, then, your birth certificate, please; where were you born, when were you born, what is your parentage, how far back does it go?" If if I asked you this, what would you say? When were you born? Now perhaps you do not have to be able to say the precise hour, moment, when it happened, but you must at least able tosay, Yes, I knwo that at a certain time in my life something happened, and that happening was nothing less than a new birth. You must be able to do that to be in the household. And what is your parentage? Where wereyou born? Now you would be quite wrong if you said, I was born again at such-and-such a place. The only answer is, I was born in heaven, from above; my citizenship is in heaven, my franchise is in the city of God. "This one was born there" Pslam 1xxxvii). "All my foundations are in thee" - I take my rise and my support from up there, the heavenly city. Where were you born, and how far back does your pediree go? Ah, blessed be God, it goes back beyond time, altogether outside of time. In Christ, we are not children of Adam; we are children of eternity. We are chosen in Him before the foundation of the world. So this household must imply absolute purity of strain, of pedigree; there must be no mixture here." Sparks, Union in Christ p.62-3
I have no idea as towhy this came to mind as I read your comment above. The thing I rejoice here is 'we are not children of Adam' - we are so past this point of dispair...the passage gives us eternal lenses to look through again realizing how alien we are from this plain...and how precious a commodity we are in HIS eternal family.
Not too long ago I read or heard something to the effect: 'We are not human beings having a spiritual experience, rather we are spiritual beings having a human experience' I tend to agree.. RoG
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