June 23, 2009
"Acquainted With Grief"
He is . . . a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief —Isaiah 53:3
We are not "acquainted with grief" in the same way our Lord was acquainted with it. We endure it and live through it, but we do not become intimate with it. At the beginning of our lives we do not bring ourselves to the point of dealing with the reality of sin. We look at life through the eyes of reason and say that if a person will control his instincts, and educate himself, he can produce a life that will slowly evolve into the life of God. But as we continue on through life, we find the presence of something which we have not yet taken into account, namely, sin— and it upsets all of our thinking and our plans. Sin has made the foundation of our thinking unpredictable, uncontrollable, and irrational.
We have to recognize that sin is a fact of life, not just a shortcoming. Sin is blatant mutiny against God, and either sin or God must die in my life. The New Testament brings us right down to this one issue— if sin rules in me, God’s life in me will be killed; if God rules in me, sin in me will be killed. There is nothing more fundamental than that. The culmination of sin was the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, and what was true in the history of God on earth will also be true in your history and in mine— that is, sin will kill the life of God in us. We must mentally bring ourselves to terms with this fact of sin. It is the only explanation why Jesus Christ came to earth, and it is the explanation of the grief and sorrow of life.
So - I'm convicted. After reading this morning's My Utmost for His Highest, Mr. Chambers has brought something to my attention that I know - but haven't thought of in a while. First - I think it's important that we see sin for what it is, "blatant mutiny against God." I have always thought of sin as anything that separates us from God. But I think it's even more than that - when we sin - we are choosing to let that rebellion against God to rule in our lives. When I choose to sin - I am choosing my master, choosing to allow God to die in me. Is that what I want? Is that what we should want? Are the temporal things we struggle with worth killing Christ within us?
You know - when I was younger there was an issue that I struggled with - telling lying. The first time was really hard, but you know every time I told another lie - it got easier! It was because I was allowing sin to rule within me, allowing God's life in me to die. Until I realized that it was a part of me, which scared me. I thought - I have to work harder now at telling the truth than lying. It had taken hold and I was this sin's servant. God forbid!
But there is hope! Mr. Chambers goes on to say "if God rules in me, sin in me will be killed" - Praise the Lord. God gives us the key - by the Blood of Jesus Christ - we can choose God. Choose to serve God with each decision, and every time we do - we kill sin in our lives a little more. I think that, the death of sin in our lives, in itself is worth making those "true, honest, just, pure, lovely, of good report" choices! And how amazing it will be when the very nature of God is our nature. Every choice - without a thought - will be for life! Are we choosing life today? Are we choosing to kill sin within our will? Our mind? Our emotions? Our desires? What are we doing with the choice we have?
Lord I pray that you would help me choose you, choose to kill sin within me. Let every part of me be choose your life. Show me the places that I still allow sin to rule within me. Show me how I choose to be in blatant mutiny with you! That is not my desire, God, I desire you to be the only Lord in my life, that I would worship you with everything I do. That sin would not have hold of me and that the work, Jesus, you did on the cross would be perfected within my soul. Let me be so in tune with you that your nature is my nature. Let me see the true, honest, just, pure, lovely, of good report, virtuous, and praiseworthy things, and not only think on them - but choose them. Let me choose life over death with everything I do!
~ Amen
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