Utterly Incapable

I am realizing more and more how utterly incapable we are of bringing about freedom in our own lives. Today I sat in utter astounding amazement and although it may contain slight echoes of pride I will share this freely. (After all exposing pride to the light is fatal to pride.) Change began to happen in front of me - change that I had nothing to do with. I was so happy and so swept away by the power on display. I am not sure that it wasn't just the effects of change that were sweeping me off my feet. I had absolutely nothing to do with it. I didn't try hard or focus or walk through fifteen steps. It just happened right in front of me - before my very eyes. Proof once again that the work of God in our lives is just that - the work of God. Like the song says - "You're the God and I'm the man". How relieving it is to have that revelation. Yet the question Peter put so perfectly remains. How then should we live? Certainly there is a place of humility and submission to Him wherein these workings of power flow freely. I know that rebellion in my heart - that insistance that I know the way above what God is speaking into my life - can not only hinder but will halt the flow. Otherwise, its like trying to feed a child that won't stop talking. You have to hush the chid in order to feed him. Then again, sometimes the best way to hush a child is to stick something good in his mouth! I think God does each. Somethimes He wants us to quiet our selves, to lay aside our own thoughts and opinions and what we think is true and surrender to Him and to His truth. To let our pride die and open ourselves to receive fresh bread. Then there are other times when right in the middle of saying something the Spirit of God intervenes in his mercy and rescues me from a deceit or wrong opinion by exploding his truth in my heart and bubbling it up right out of my own mouth. This just happened last week. I was speaking with a friend of mine about anger and began to say things to her that were actually ministering to my own heart. Things I knew were not from myself and things that I knew were from God because there was power in them and I was getting free. Wow. So, I don't put anything past God. I do not pretend to know how He works or why He does what He does. I do know this, He is good and all His ways are love.

Redemptive Suffering

The Bride of Christ needs to learn how to receive mistreatment - how not to have to defend herself. God is her husband and defender. Mistreatment can be seen as "redemptive suffering" which should not be despised - it counts for something. God will use it to form and mold us - exposing weaknesses and faultlines. Mistreatment is a test which contains an avenue of transformation - it takes you to a place of "leaning on your Lover" Not defending myself - an opportunity to lean on Jesus and let Him purge my soul of weaknesses. There is something better than being right in life - being free from pride and dying to self-protection.