When we entered in to the door of our salvation we brought nothing of merit to the table. Our need of a Saviour and His love drew us, and so our journey began. We tend to come to the Lord in installments, incrementally learning His ways in the school of life: “For precept must be upon precept, line upon line, here a little, there a little”, Isaiah 28: 10. We often have to exchange our wrong believing on our journey when we receive a revelation of truth, right believing, by the Holy Spirit. Our wrong dispositions hinder and complicate the work the Lord seeks to do in us, in order to bring forth the transformation of the life of His Son in us.
Our Saviour is kind, loving and longsuffering but our stubborness, self will and pride limits the Unlimited One, as God resists us. 1 Peter 5:5 “…..all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility, for God resists the proud , and gives grace to the humble”. Just like the children of Israel of old, we find we are in a wilderness going around in never ending circles and unable to experience the Promised Land of fullness, our birthright in Christ.
If we allow our old nature to express itself, then the only inheritance we receive is a walk in the wilderness. Thomas Monod, wrote the hymn, “Oh the bitter shame and sorrow”. On reading the words many of us can identify with the journey the Lord takes us all on. The last line of each verse portrays our own personal testimonies to His grace. “Some of self and some of Thee” As the Lord continues to lovingly work with us, as we respond we find a higher gear: “Less of self and more of Thee” The Lord desires to bring us to His final goal for us: “None of self, and all of Thee”.
Can I joyfully agree with Paul’s words “I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me, and the life I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me”, Galatians 2:20.
2 Corinthians 1: 8-9 here Paul confesses he felt “pressed out of measure” in his circumstances to the point of despair. In finality he saw God’s higher purpose, that he should not trust in himself, but in God, in whose hands he had placed his life.
God requires that we be pressed out of the measure of trusting in ourselves, that we might depend on Him in all things. The Lord Jesus is our “Dependable Love”. The Holy Spirit is our dependable Guide, and God is our faithful Heavenly Father.
If I feel I am stuck in a rut, there is not much difference between a rut and a grave! No life there! “Why look for the living among the dead?”, the dead ashes of unbelief, arrogance and pride. Repentance and humility God will not despise. The finished work of the Cross in our Lord Jesus is truly our Promised Land, available to all who humble themselves and allow the Holy Spirit to continue His work with us: The divine exchange: “beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning…..” Isaiah 61:3. Out of…..and into… Out of our bondage and into His freedom.
John 3:30 “He must increase, I must decrease”. A divine “disappearing act”.
“Grant me now my supplication, none of self and all of Thee” (Thomas Monod) A walk of faith has to have an ongoing journey to the final goal.
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