I love reading devotionals and one of my absolute favorites is Oswald Chambers', My Utmost for His Highest. In one of my daily devotions the question was asked, “Have I ever been carried away to do something for God not because it was my duty, nor because there was anything in it all beyond the fact that I love him? Have I ever realized that I can bring to God things which are of value to Him, or am I mooning around the magnitude of his redemption while there are any number of things which I might be doing? Not Divine, colossal things, but ordinary, simple human things which will give evidence to God that I am abandoned to Him?" Oswald Chambers went on to say that "there are times when it seems as if God watches to see if we will give Him the abandoned tokens of how genuinely we do love him. Abandonment to God is of more value than personal holiness. Personal holiness focuses the eye on our own whiteness; we are greatly concerned about the way we walk and talk and look, fearful lest we offend him. Perfect love casts out all that when once we are abandoned to God. Furthermore, we have to get rid of the notion, Am I of any use? And make up our minds that we are not. It is never a question of being of use, but of being of value to God himself. When we are abandoned to God, He works through us all the time."
Wow! Does that hit home for me! More often than not the focus seems to remain on me--not Him. I can quickly become perplexed with myself because I am not being holy in my attitude toward others, but what I realize once again is that I need to take the focus off of myself and onto Christ. The question remains, "Am I truly abandoned to God?" Can I love and serve others out of the sheer love I have for Christ? I need to stop focusing on “doing” and simply start “loving” God with my whole heart. The ironic thing is if I make it my focus to love Him and abandon myself to Him and Him alone, He will work through me in my relationships and in all the ordinary, simple things in life. In the way I treat and talk to others, and in the things I do. I don’t need to constantly be doing something out of duty or obligation. I can't make God love me anymore than He already does. All I need to do is to abandon myself unto Him. Love him wholeheartedly. I believe therein lies the evidence. What follows will be a natural by-product of the love I have for God.
What exactly does abandonment look like? The thesaurus uses words like forsake, renounce, relinquish, give up, disown, turn your back on. I believe it means to forsake or renounce or relinquish any and all things that get in the way of loving, seeking after, and making God our first priority. Matthew 22:37 says, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your sould and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. We need to give up selfishness, self-indulgences, and anything that elevates us in place of God. There is no room for a prideful attitude, critical thoughts, or justifying sinful actions. We must turn our backs on and give up any rights that we feel we deserve. We must love God and let Him be the judge. We do not need to vindicate ourselves. We just need to love Him. Everything else will flow out of that love. The focus is not on what we can do, but who we can be. If we only do, it becomes a duty or obligation, but if we can be, then we are transformed and of value to God.
Wow! Does that hit home for me! More often than not the focus seems to remain on me--not Him. I can quickly become perplexed with myself because I am not being holy in my attitude toward others, but what I realize once again is that I need to take the focus off of myself and onto Christ. The question remains, "Am I truly abandoned to God?" Can I love and serve others out of the sheer love I have for Christ? I need to stop focusing on “doing” and simply start “loving” God with my whole heart. The ironic thing is if I make it my focus to love Him and abandon myself to Him and Him alone, He will work through me in my relationships and in all the ordinary, simple things in life. In the way I treat and talk to others, and in the things I do. I don’t need to constantly be doing something out of duty or obligation. I can't make God love me anymore than He already does. All I need to do is to abandon myself unto Him. Love him wholeheartedly. I believe therein lies the evidence. What follows will be a natural by-product of the love I have for God.
What exactly does abandonment look like? The thesaurus uses words like forsake, renounce, relinquish, give up, disown, turn your back on. I believe it means to forsake or renounce or relinquish any and all things that get in the way of loving, seeking after, and making God our first priority. Matthew 22:37 says, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your sould and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. We need to give up selfishness, self-indulgences, and anything that elevates us in place of God. There is no room for a prideful attitude, critical thoughts, or justifying sinful actions. We must turn our backs on and give up any rights that we feel we deserve. We must love God and let Him be the judge. We do not need to vindicate ourselves. We just need to love Him. Everything else will flow out of that love. The focus is not on what we can do, but who we can be. If we only do, it becomes a duty or obligation, but if we can be, then we are transformed and of value to God.
This is a big lesson we need to apply to our lives. May the Holy Spirit teach us how to abandon ourselves completely unto God because then and only then will we be truly useful for His kingdom purposes.
And this is my prayer; that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ--to the glory and praise of God. Philippians 1:9-11
No comments:
Post a Comment