THERE are no silver bullets, magic wand solutions when it comes to personal or spiritual growth. I voice an oft repeated phrase/axiom when people approach me for counseling, seeking some quick-fix answer, saying – “Gardens Just Don’t Happen!” They are a deliberate and on-going endeavor in planning, planting, propagation, and diligent care. Weeds just happen (sort of), but healthy, fruitful and flowering gardens don’t.
WELL, I’m going to leave it at that, with more to say in this topic for next time.
With highest regards in Christ,
Joe
Neh. 8:10; Isa. 30:15; Jas. 1:2
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Consecration – Part 3
The following two thoughts by Andrew Murray will help here. “A superficial acquaintance with God’s plan leads to the view that while justification is God’s work, by faith in Christ, sanctification (growth) is our work, to be performed under the influence of the gratitude we feel for the deliverance we have experienced, and by the aid of the Holy Spirit. But the earnest Christian soon finds how little gratitude can supply the power. When he thinks that more prayer will supply it, he finds that, indispensable as prayer is, it is not enough. Often the believer struggles hopelessly for years, until he listens to the teaching of the Spirit, as He glorifies Christ again, and reveals Christ, our Sanctification, to be appropriated by faith alone…
“God works to will, and He is ready to work to do (Phil. 2:13), but, alas! many Christians misunderstand this. They think because they have the will it is enough, and that now they are able to do. This is not so. The new will is a permanent gift, an attribute of the new nature. The power to do is not a permanent gift, but must be each moment received from the Holy Spirit. It is the man who is conscious of his own impotence as a believer who will learn that by the Holy Spirit he can lead a holy life.” Now and then one is called on to speak out against something that is good in order to present His best. The love motive from which to live the Christian life and serve the Lord is good; it is high, but it is not adequate—especially because it is not the motivation underwritten by Him.
As growing Christians, it is time for us to see the necessity of going beyond the love motive to the life motive. “For to me to live is Christ” (Phil. 1:21). ….to be continued
