Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Being a Follower

Galatians 1:3-5, "May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace. Jesus gave his life for our sins, just as God our Father planned, in order to rescue us from this evil world in which we live. All glory to God forever and ever! Amen."

I can very easily cry for the past sins in my life. I can mourn for the life that I led and the choices that I made. I do not live in the past, but if anyone knows the severity of my sin, I do. For, I know how many I hurt along the way. The thing that I grieve the most is the fact that I was weak. I was a follower, and a leader. A good friend of mine explained it very well for me the other day. She said, "You and I have the same personality all that matters is, who you are around. If we are with good, they can point us toward good. If we are around evil, we help them in evil. But, it does not stop there, they will get us headed in that direction, then we take off. We become the leader, we just need help in going the right direction." Everyone who knows me, probably sees this, it is the directing that can be tricky. The thing that I am struggling with at the moment are the tears. I am not so sure that I should cry any longer. And yes while I am writing this, tears are forming, but anyway. I cannot cry for how my life has turned out, for Christ was the leader in that one.

Do you know how much I love my God! I am so in love with Him, because I know there is nothing I can do to earn His favor. Yet, He came and chose me. His salvation is a free gift. His love is never ending, because trust me, I pushed that envelope to the limits, and He never left me. Maybe, I should stop the tears from flowing so easily, I don't know. But they are not really tears of heartache they are tears of thankfulness. I am so grateful for the life that I have today. I am so undeserving of any of it, and I know this. I truly did nothing to earn anything that I have. It was all by His grace and favor that I have any of it. My life is different, because I finally decided to allow Him to point me where I needed to go. I finally decided to let go and trust in His love. Do you know how freeing this is? I am finally free, and the more I see that it was His guiding me, that led me here, the more free I am to enjoy my life.

Galatians 3:5-6, "I ask you again, does God give you the Holy Spirit and work miracles among you because you obey the law? Of course not! It is because you believe the message you heard about Christ. In the same way, 'Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith.' The real children of Abraham, then, are those who put their faith in God." I have done nothing to deserve the love of my God. Yet, He died for me and took the curse of the cross upon Himself. If you think that you have to be "good" to believe, then you are missing the point. The actions do follow, but it takes time. What He wants is a repentant heart and a willingness to follow Him, wherever He may lead. Then after you get there, be thankful to Him for loving you, even before you were born.

Oswald Chambers, "Galatians 2:20, 'I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me . . .' These words mean the breaking and collapse of my independence brought about by my own hands, and the surrendering of my life to the supremacy of the Lord Jesus. No one can do this for me, I must do it myself. God may bring me up to this point three hundred and sixty-five times a year, but He cannot push me through it. It means breaking the hard outer layer of my individual independence from God, and the liberating of myself and my nature into oneness with Him; not following my own ideas, but choosing absolute loyalty to Jesus. Once I am at that point, there is no possibility of misunderstanding. Very few of us know anything about loyalty to Christ or understand what He meant when He said, '. . . for My sake' (Matthew 5:11). That is what makes a strong saint."

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