I was listening to Grace Walk Radio again just now and heard someone (I didn't catch his name) talk about resting in Christ without being passive, but also without continual self-examination (which I am terribly guilty of).
He gave a quote of a woman who had said something like: "You can't plant something and keep digging it up, looking to see if it's growing."
He went on to talk about how we need to learn to rest in Christ. I agree. And for me, this is the toughest part of the Grace Walk. Which would be learning to have a Godward gaze, because there are a million times in the day where I lose focus and start drifting off the narrow road of grace. It doesn't even have to be self sufficiency that causes me to wander. Sin and worldly distractions are also a major cause of my shifting focus.
Edit: I think it is also safe to say that a lot of people, including myself, have believed that faith without perfection is dead. This is what causes the constant analysis of myself. So I can relate to people who go through the same cycle of evaluating themselves and worrying when they don't express all the actions of the idea they have in their mind as to what a Christian really is.
We talk beautiful talks about being on fire for Jesus and such. But it's all lies. You can't love Him unless He first loves you. So people who claim to love Jesus so much under legalism, are lying. I do believe they WANT to love Jesus. But their efforts at forcing themselves to love Him are futile. I tried it as well. I can't love Him unless I first let Him love me. People are so quick to get people to work, thinking that is what discipleship is all about. They don't allow people to be established in grace. And so they end up burning out, or leaving the faith entirely, because they have found they just cannot be a "true Christian."
Yes, I get pissed off at people who constantly push people to sacrifice themselves, but have no love in their hearts. All they have is self-mutilation and then calling it love. They have the shadow, but not the Reality Himself.
2 comments:
True! The beginning of your post made me laugh, quote: "but also without continual self-examination (which I am terribly guilty of)." I totally understand what you are talking about. This deep seeded mentality of not measuring up to a "standard" that has been leaked into our minds.
Poor God, he just wants our love, our hearts, so that we might receive His love and pour it back to Him. And we get stuck looking at the standard we have place upon ourselves one way or another. . . Can you imagine being in love with someone who was more concerned with trying to do all the right things than just responding to your love? Oh Father, we need to see and taste your love so desperately! Remove the fog of self from our vision. Let us fall deeply in love with you!
Great stuff!
It is He who loved us while we were yet sinners. And our walk in Him is a response to that love. As you said I get suspicious of people claiming that they love Jesus more than anything. It is true that they want to and they try but they fail!
Apart from Christ we have nothing good dwelling in us. It is Him and His love what is expressing through us. It is a labor to rest in His all sufficiency. That might be the reason the author of Hebrews saying, 'Let us make every EFFORT to enter that rest'.
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