Monday, January 14, 2019

If We are Faithless

If we are faithless, he remains faithful--
for he cannot deny himself. 2 Timothy 2:13

Jesus Christ does not want to be our helper; He wants 
to be our life. He does not want us to work for Him. He 
wants us to let Him do His work through us, using us 
as we use a pencil to write with--better still, using us as 
one of the fingers on His hand.

When our life is not only Christ's but Christ, our life will 
be a winning life; for He cannot fail. And a winning life 
is a fruit-bearing life, a serving life. It is after all only a 
small part of life, and a wholly negative part to overcome; 
we must also bear fruit in character and in service if Christ 
is our life. "He cannot deny himself;" He "came not to be
ministered unto, but to minister." An utterly new kind of
service will be ours now, as we let Christ serve others
through us, using us. And this fruit-bearing and service,
habitual and constant, must all be by faith in Him; our
works are the result of His Life in us, not the condition,
or the secret, or the cause of life. 

The conditions of thus receiving Christ as the fulness of
our life are:

1 Surrender absolutely and unconditionally to Christ as
Master of all that we are and all that we have, telling
God that we are now ready to have His whole will done
in our entire life, at every point, no matter what the cost.

2 Believe God has set us wholly free from the law of sin--
not will to do this, but has done it. Upon this second step,
the quiet act of faith, all now depends. Faith must believe
God in entire absence of any feeling or evidence. For 
God's word is safer, better, and surer than any evidence 
of His word. We are to say, in blind, cold faith if need be,
"I know that my Jesus is meeting al my needs now (even
my need of faith), because His grace is sufficient for me."

And remember that Christ Himself is better than any of 
His blessings: better than the power, or the victory, or the 
service that He grants. Christ creates spiritual power; but
Christ is better than that power. We may have Christ, 
yielding to Him in such completeness and abandonment
of self that is no longer we that live, but Christ that lives
in us. 

Will you thus take Him?  Charles Trumbull 1872-1941

Reader, this concise explanation of what brings victory
in the Christian life, is what changed my Christian life
about 13 years ago. I never want to go back into "oughts"
and "shoulds." There is such a freedom in serving if the
Lord is doing the work--through me! ( and I need to be
reminded periodically. :) )



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