Truth Matters from Pastor Dean, June 14th 2023

“If only”...”if not for these struggles or persons”...”if God would only remove these circumstances”...”I need a fresh start”...”surely God doesn’t want me feeling these horrible, anxious emotions.”  These are all statements we succumb to at points in our life experiences.  They are also statements of disbelief in God’s sovereign, omniscient purposes for us.  Make no mistake, even when we feel the need for such statements, God is at work conforming us to His Son.  Understand, THERE IS NO GREATER OBJECTIVE GOD HAS FOR YOU than to be conformed in your thinking, your goals, your loving to the magnificent, sinless person of Jesus Christ.  That’s quite an objective, but that’s what God is doing.  The point is...we need to take a step back and pray that God the Holy Spirit shows us what He is accomplishing in our lives.  But then...not to resort to the dumpster, but rather, take initiative to obey His truth, and not let our emotions or feelings drive us to despair.  This is the point of today’s My Utmost for His Highest:

“In the matter of determination. The Spirit of Jesus is put into me by way of the atonement by the Cross of Christ. I then have to build my thinking patiently to bring it into perfect harmony with my Lord. God will not make me think like Jesus— I have to do it myself. I have to bring “every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5). “Abide in Me”— in intellectual matters, in money matters, in every one of the matters that make human life what it is. Our lives are not made up of only one neatly confined area.

Am I preventing God from doing things in my circumstances by saying that it will only serve to hinder my fellowship with Him? How irrelevant and disrespectful that is! It does not matter what my circumstances are. I can be as much assured of abiding in Jesus in any one of them as I am in any prayer meeting. It is unnecessary to change and arrange my circumstances myself. Our Lord’s inner abiding was pure and unblemished. He was at home with God wherever His body was. He never chose His own circumstances, but was meek, submitting to His Father’s plans and directions for Him. Just think of how amazingly relaxed our Lord’s life was! But we tend to keep God at a fever pitch in our lives. We have none of the serenity of the life which is “hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3).

Think of the things that take you out of the position of abiding in Christ. You say, “Yes, Lord, just a minute— I still have this to do. Yes, I will abide as soon as this is finished, or as soon as this week is over. It will be all right, Lord. I will abide then.” Get moving— begin to abide now. In the initial stages it will be a continual effort to abide, but as you continue, it will become so much a part of your life that you will abide in Him without any conscious effort. Make the determination to abide in Jesus wherever you are now or wherever you may be placed in the future.”

Another statement of unbelief we often resort to is: “why me?”  The answer: because God loves you and is stripping you of all your independent, self-reliance and making you into a saint for His glory.  Don’t fret, God has your back...learn to faith-rest (Hebrews 4).  My prayer for you and me this day is this:  Lord, how prone we are to forget You have one life-time to conform us to Jesus Christ.  We realize how far we have to go (Philippians 3:12-14).  You have a lot of work to do in all of us.  Help us to see every circumstance as part of our sanctification.  And most of all, we want to abide in You.  Amen.

In 1903, George Young wrote this song that reminds us of today’s Truth Matters:

Sometimes on the mount where the sun shines so bright,
God leads His dear children along;
Sometimes in the valley, in darkest of night,
God leads His dear children along.

Though sorrows befall us and Satan oppose,
God leads His dear children along;
Through grace we can conquer, defeat all our foes, God leads His dear children along.

Some through the waters, some through the flood,
Some through the fire, but all through the blood;
Some through great sorrow, but God gives a song,
In the night season and all the day long.

Walk with the King today and be a blessing.