In our daily walk with the Lord we find our natural life closely entwined with our spiritual. We cannot separate the two. Life bristles with opportunities to find Him in every relationship, trial and circumstance. How has this past week been for you? The truths declared in last week’s blog entitled, “UNLIMITED RESOURCES”, continue to challenge and encourage every one of us as we seek to find God in the mix of daily living. Every trial is a stepping stone of divine opportunity for God to purify my heart. Once I understand what God is after in me, I begin to see things from His perspective. God is for me, NOT against me, (Romans 8: 31-32).
“Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God”, Matthew 5:8. Heart purity is seeing God in ALL things, giving thanks IN all things, (not FOR) that He is my “ever present help in times of trouble”, (Psalm 46).
“When my heart is overwhelmed, lead me to the rock that is higher than I”, Psalm 61:2 That Rock is Jesus Christ.
My trials are the process God uses to purify my heart. Gold is a much sought after, precious metal. The purifying process requires it to be heated to a great temperature in order for any dirt or dross to come to the surface and be removed. Only when these waste products are removed is the gold pure and fit for purpose. Our trials are the circumstances God uses to reveal to us all that is in our heart. We all have a different set of circumstances in life, whether they are the consequences of past choices, or circumstances beyond our control, but they are all used of God to the same end. God works to reveal His Son in me! Problems arise when I refuse to allow my old flesh nature to stay in the grave.
The apostle Paul declared: For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. 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: 18-20.
All that pertains to the flesh life, the self nature, cannot co-exist in harmony with the life of the Son of God in me. Our trials reveal all that is in our heart that God wants to deal with.
2 Chronicles 32: 31 records of King Hezekiah: “………..God left him, to try him, that he might know all that was in his heart”. God uses my trials to reveal to me what is in my heart that He desires to purify. Let us find God’s purpose in our trials. Here we can find that sufficiency of His grace that He promised to carry us through. We shall be as gold, tried in the fires of life, a vessel fit for purpose, His divine purpose. He desires to see the life of His Son flowing freely through each of us, ambassadors to extend His kingdom here on earth.
God releases us when the purpose of the trial is fulfilled. He works His miracle, makes a way where there is no way, reveals His Son in me and I worship the Way Maker, Miracle Worker in humble adoration and praise to Almighty God. When He reveals His arm, Christ lives on resurrection ground in me……Christ the hope of glory! All praise to our Father God.
Now I discover the secret of the abiding life Jesus spoke of in John 15:5 “I am the Vine, you are the branches. He that abides in me, and I in Him, the same brings forth much fruit, for without me you can do nothing”.
The challenge is: where am I abiding? Am I abiding in my rights, wallowing in the injustices against me, indulging self? Jesus said a tree is known by its fruit. The fruit is given away, if it stays on the tree it rots! Jesus declared that the branches could not bear fruit of themselves, only as they abide in Him. The hall marks of one who abides in Jesus, the Vine, are joy and peace, independent of whatever circumstance I experience, because the Source of these divine elements is Christ himself. He is the true joy giver of a divine life that will carry me through every day He gives me breath to praise Him, for who He is.
“For in Him we live, and move, and have our being....”, Acts 17:28
Lord, help us to make the right choices to keep us abiding in You. Amen.
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