Word for Today, Fri, 16 Nov 2001: Getting the Priorities Straight
Posted by: masinick <masinick@...>
Every so often, I find it healthy to check myself against a more
stringent set of standards than the daily ones. I make an effort
to pray, read the Bible, talk or write to others about Christ,
and consider the needs of others. There are times when I have to
remind myself that my first order of business, before ALL other
things, is my relationship with God.
Today's message from Oswald Chambers is his usual, direct, to the
point, message about cultivating our personal relationship with
God. Almost without exception, Oswald's devotional messages
center around getting our OWN live right - with God - where they
belong.
So often we are eager to help others, and that is good. But
Oswald gets underneath that, and questions our real motive. He
argues that our acts of service rightly come out of a maturity in
our relationship with God, and not out of some manufactured
effort on our part to make sure we do certain things. He is
especially critical of those who insist on interfering in the
lives of others - in the name of "helping" them! Ouch!
I don't see Oswald saying NOT to help others. What I do see him
saying is much the same thing that Jesus said, when he told us to
get the plank out of our own eyes before we can help someone else
get a speck out of their eyes. In other words, get right with
God FIRST!
Guilty as charged. I find myself falling into this trap more
often than I'd comfortably want to admit. How about you? Does
this touch anywhere near home? I think this would be a good time
for each of us to privately, quietly, examine our own personal
relationship with God, and make sure that our "relationship" is
just that, and not a bunch of deeds, masquerading in place of our
personal intimacy with God.
Your Brother in Christ,
Brian
http://www.gospelcom.net/rbc/utmost/devo/utmost.shtml
"Peter... said to Jesus, 'But Lord, what about this man?' Jesus
said to him, '... what is that to you? You follow Me' " (John
21:21-22).
One of the hardest lessons to learn comes from our stubborn
refusal to refrain from interfering in other people's lives. It
takes a long time to realize the danger of being an amateur
providence, that is, interfering with God's plan for others. You
see someone suffering and say, "He will not suffer, and I will
make sure that he doesn't." You put your hand right in front of
God's permissive will to stop it, and then God says, "What is
that to you?" Is there stagnation in your spiritual life? Don't
allow it to continue, but get into God's presence and find out
the reason for it. You will possibly find it is because you have
been interfering in the life of another - proposing things you
had no right to propose, or advising when you had no right to
advise. When you do have to give advice to another person, God
will advise through you with the direct understanding of His
Spirit. Your part is to maintain the right relationship with God
so that His discernment can come through you continually for the
purpose of blessing someone else.
Most of us live only within the level of consciousness -
consciously serving and consciously devoted to God. This shows
immaturity and the fact that we're not yet living the real
Christian life. Maturity is produced in the life of a child of
God on the unconscious level, until we become so totally
surrendered to God that we are not even aware of being used by
Him. When we are consciously aware of being used as broken bread
and poured-out wine, we have yet another level to reach - a level
where all awareness of ourselves and of what God is doing through
us is completely eliminated. A saint is never consciously a
saint - a saint is consciously dependent on God.
Authorized By The Oswald Chambers Publications Association, Ltd.
My Utmost for His Highest Daily Devotional is provided by RBC
Ministries
1997 RBC Ministries--Grand Rapids, MI 49555-0001
=====
--
Brian Masinick, "The Mas", mailto:masinick@yahoo.com
Home page: http://www.geocities.com/masinick/
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Find the one for you at Yahoo! Personals
personals.yahoo.com