“Why are you cast down, O my soul?
And why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God;
For I shall yet praise Him,
The help of my countenance and my God.”
Psa 42:11
“Suffering brings us to an end of our self; only then, emptied of self can Christ enter in.” -anon
ARE you disquieted, unnerved by current events, social unrest and troubles, a culture that seems to be unraveling before our eyes? I was watching a political commentary panel on TV, and a statistic was quoted from “some report” (I should have grabbed my note pad and written down the source), that two thirds of our current society is having sleep difficulties, primarily due to worries about America’s future. The statement went on to say that the malady affects all political views equally. There seems to be a sense of hopelessness in the face of current events. One of the panelist commented that the sad thing is, “No one is offering hope!” I couldn’t help but think of the old country song, Looking for “Love In All The Wrong Places,” only substituting the word “love” for “hope.” I thought to myself, “hope” is there, you are not looking in the right place.
PSALM 42 repeats twice, once in the middle (vv5) and at the end, Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God…. It opens with As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
A CHARACTER trait lesson I frequently taught at school – CCA – is about “Teachability” – Being eager to learn and to be corrected. One of my favorite quotes when I taught this lesson is from the Wizard of Westwood, UCLA’s famed basketball coach John Wooden, “It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts.”
SO, we are nearing the end of our study in The Results of Reckoning, a summary of all that we have previously studied. We will pick up where we left off under the third hearing in this chapter, The Continuity of Life Out of Death. May the Lord bless your drawing near to Him through His word and this instruction, with a teachable heart.
In the inexorable riches of Christ,
Joe
Neh. 8:10; Isa 30:15; Job 2:10; Jas. 1:2; Prov. 21:30
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Chapter 53—Results of Reckoning – Part 4
Although we are living in our risen Lord, we are camping in this body of humiliation, and serving in this world of death. Therefore, our Father keeps us in the place of need and helplessness in ourselves. “We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us” (2 Cor. 4:7). As we are kept dependent, we grow in His submissive, yielded life. “I come to do thy will, O God” (Heb. 10:9). Abiding in the Lord Jesus, it is effortless and natural to yield. The only struggle in the matter of yielding erupts from the self-life; that source never was, never will be, nor ever can be, in subjection to the Father (Rom. 8:7).
Paul’s urgent plea for the believer’s yielding and consecration is based upon reckoning. “I beseech you therefore’ brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice” (Rom. 12:1). To present our bodies is to yield our faculties, our new life in Christ. “Yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead [new creation], and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God” (Rom. 6:13). Life-out-of-death reckoning results in our becoming a “living sacrifice.” Such a one is always delivered unto death—but, out of that daily death, new life is constantly manifested.
Our reckoning maintains us in the life-out-of-death principle. This taking up our cross renders us a “grain of wheat,” and results in our losing our old life. The Holy Spirit “buries” us here in this situation and there in that location, so that we might not abide alone but that there may be a rich harvest of golden grain “for Jesus’ sake.” It is comforting to realize that the same process of the cross that holds the old man crucified’ causes the new man to be manifest. The burial of the “grain of wheat” makes the old life powerless, and the new life fruitful (John 12:24, 25, ASV).
Some of the “graves” out of which His sacrificial life arises are the ministry, the mission field, the home, the school, the hospital, and the place of employment. Are these not the very places in which His resurrection life must be manifested, where His poured-out life needs to be shared and received? It is as we reckon upon our heavenly position that we are able to rest in any “grave” He has prepared for us, rejoicing in His victory that emerges from our daily deliverance unto death. We abide in the Lord Jesus, that He may bring us through all the processing required for fruitful life and service, “not somehow, but triumphantly.” ….to be continued.
