His Own Purposes

Luke 18

“31 And taking the twelve, he said to them, ‘See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished. 32 For he will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon. 33 And after flogging him, they will kill him, and on the third day he will rise.’ 34 But they understood none of these things. This saying was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said.”

“God called Jesus Christ to what seemed unmitigated disaster…Jesus Christ’s life was an absolute failure from every standpoint but God’s. But what seemed failure from man’s standpoint was a tremendous triumph from God’s, because God’s purpose is never man’s purpose. There comes the baffling call of God in our lives also. The call of God can never be stated explicitly; it is implicit. The call of God is like the call of the sea, no one hears it but the one has the nature of the sea in him. It cannot be stated definitely what the call of God is to, because His call is to be in comradeship with Himself for His own purposes, and the test is to believe that God knows what He is after.”

I’ve recently begun to sometimes ask myself: “why are you praying this?” Do I really want more of God in my life, or do I just want the things He can give me? I have to question which is really more important to my heart: knowing God and His character, or Him answering my prayers, making my dreams about how I think my life should go come true. When was the last time I felt really good about saying “Alright God, have your way. I don’t care what it looks like but do it.” It’s a scary thing to let up our own purposes and our own visions of what God’s will looks like to truly allow Him reign over our actions, opinions, plans and reputations. His plans are not always going to look pretty or neat or have finite endings to them, but the process and the life that He leads us through through the trial is truly his objective, not the final product we look so forward to. And He can lead us because He Is Trusworthy. All He wants is our reliance upon Him; He asks our hearts without reservations (am I seeing a theme here?).

Coming As Paupers

Matthew 5

The Sermon on the Mount

1Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him.

The Beatitudes

2And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:

3 "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

4"Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

5"Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

6"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

...

Salt and Light

13"You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.

14 "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

"The Redemption means that Jesus Christ can put into any man the disposition that ruled his own life, and all the standards of God gives are based on that disposition. The teaching of the Sermon on the Mount produces despair in the natural man- the very thing Jesus means it to do. As long as we have a self-righteous, conceited notion that we can carry out Our Lord's teaching, God will allow us to go on until we break our ignorance over some obstacle, that we are willing to come to Him as paupers and receive from Him."

~Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest.

Blessed are the poor in spirit.

Blessed are those who can grasp the weight of their own depravity, and the greatness of His glory.

Blessed are those of us who know who they are in God's eyes.

I find that pretty amazing; that God would simply ask us to realize our need for Him (in hunger and thirst) and to do something about it. He doesn't send us on a journey to find Himself up a river in an inner tube without a paddle, no. He says "If you want me, come in my direction. I'll come find you." I know so often that I struggle to rest in my walk with/ pursuit of God, thinking that if only I was like this one person, then… if only I could get over this one fear, then… if only I could get the will power and self-control to read my bible every day and write fantastic revelations in my journal, then… then I would be close to God. Then we would have a good relationship. But it's wrong. It simply is. Jesus Christ didn't sit atop a mountain and preach about quiet times or what a "decent Christian" would look like. I think he'd think it ridiculous if someone were to come up to him and ask "Jesus, how many chapters of the Bible should I read every day?" He wouldn't see it that way. He doesn't. He asks us to want Him wholeheartedly; he'll even take our prayers of wanting to want Him more, just so long as it's genuine. He's not after us being decent people or acceptable Christians, getting by enough to live at peace with our families and maybe convert x number of people in our lifetime. He just wants our heart, all of it. And there's no formula except the words "Go for it!". Isn't that beautiful?

Well there's my thought. What's yours?