We continue with the challenge from last week: When I see myself as God sees me, with no pretence or concern what others think of me, then God can equip me to go forward in His purpose. If I don’t see me as the Lord sees me, then I am operating in the false and open myself to the wiles of the devil, giving him a foothold in my life. The Lord does not operate in the false, but the devil does. It is his environment. The power of the false is in its ability to hide the truth.
We can miss the issue being addressed if we become so concerned with our own rightness attained by our own efforts. Any right standing I have is in Christ alone and His righteousness, (….”be reconciled to God. For He has made Him (Jesus) to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him”, 2 Corinthians 5:20-21).
James 1:22 exhorts us to be doers of the Word and not just hearers. “Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves”. The word declares I am in deception (vulnerable to the devil), if I know God’s Word and do not operate in it, or, if I have heard God’s voice to me and disobey what He has spoken, I am deceived. Deception is the environment of the enemy. When the storms of life come, the test will prove if I have built on the rock or the sand, (see Matthew 7: 24-27).
Jesus said, “Everyone who hears these sayings of mine and does not do them, shall be likened to a foolish man who built his house upon the sand…..the floods came, the winds blew and beat upon that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it”, Matthew 7:26-27.
No matter how far on we are in God, we must always be aware there is so much more to be done in me. The fire of God never falls on an empty altar! We are being changed from glory to glory as we behold His face, (2 Corinthians 3:18). As we behold Him, we are transformed. As we fix our gaze on Jesus we magnify Him. In that magnification, the circumstances that would trouble my heart become mere shadows in His light. “The Lord has established His throne in heaven, and His kingdom rules over all”, Psalm 103:19. Indeed! He is LORD OF ALL!
James 1:25 “Whoever looks into the perfect law of liberty, and continues therein, he not being a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed”. We must ensure we are looking in the right place and doing the right thing. Unsanctified zeal is a dangerous thing! Entering into God’s rest does not necessarily mean doing nothing, and doing does not mean doing everything in your own strength.
I may worship the Lord in song with words that stir my soul, quiet my troubled heart and water my thirsty spirit man, but true worship is when I make Jesus bigger than the adverse circumstances I am encountering and declare He is truly Lord of all! Here in every circumstance I can access His peace and rest. I am in His safe hands. Here is where faith matures into trust and God’s rest is assured.
“My faith has found a resting place not in device nor creed,
I trust the ever Living One, His wounds for me shall plead.”
Hymn by L. H. Edmonds
2 Timothy 1:12 “…For I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed to Him against that day”. Have you been persuaded? Have you committed “IT” into His safe hands? He is able to do super abundantly, far beyond anything we may ask or think.
May your faith in the ever Living One find a resting place.
