The Overmastering Majesty of Personal Power
Paul says he is overruled, overmastered, held as in a vice, by the love of Christ. Very few of us know what it means to be held in a grip by the love of God; we are held by the constraint of our experience only. The one thing that held Paul, until there was nothing else on his horizon, was the love of God. “The love of Christ constraineth us”—when you hear that note in a man or woman, you can never mistake it. You know that the Spirit of God is getting unhindered way in that life.
When we are born again of the Spirit of God, the note of testimony is on what God has done for us, and rightly so. But the baptism of the Holy Ghost obliterates that for ever, and we begin to realise what Jesus meant when He said—“Ye shall be witnesses unto Me.” Not witnesses to what Jesus can do—that is an elementary witness—but “witnesses unto Me.” We will take everything that happens as happening to Him, whether it be praise or blame, persecution or commendation. No one can stand like that for Jesus Christ who is not constrained by the majesty of His personal power. It is the only thing that matters, and the strange thing is that it is the last thing realised by the Christian worker. Paul says he is gripped by the love of Christ; that is why he acts as he does. Men may call him mad or sober, but he does not care; there is only one thing he is living for, and that is to persuade men of the judgement seat of God, and of the love of Christ. This abandon to the love of Christ is the one thing that bears fruit in the life, and it will always leave the impression of the holiness and of the power of God, never of our personal holiness.
Chambers, Oswald (2011-05-01). My Utmost for His Highest, Classic Edition (pp. 25-26). Discovery House Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Each morning when I spend time in prayer at least a part of my prayer contains the phrase, "Lord, help me (fill in the blank)" Perhaps it is to meet a work deadline. Handle a work situation in the right way. Work on extinguishing a bad habit. Get along with _____ better. As I read Chambers' entry for today, it occurred to me that my prayers all these years have had the wrong focus.
God, please help "me". There is that first-person pronoun. My prayers imply that I am the most important part of the equation. "I will do it God, you just need to help me. You give me the assist, but I will bring it on home." Only when I allow God to absolutely control me will my life ever bear any true, lasting spiritual fruit.
One hallmark of the Christian faith is the belief in our right to choose. We can choose to become children of Light. We can choose to please God. We can choose to sin. But we are only truly pleasing to our Father when we give up that right to choose. We freely abandon our rights. We relinquish any thought of self-determination.
Paul wrote the love of Christ controlled him. He no longer made his own decisions. He no longer determined his comings and goings. Each step, each word, each thought was subjected to God's control. Our lives should be so controlled, so directed, so ruled by the Spirit of God we would appear to be marionettes. Each string of thought, word, and deed pulled by the Master Marionette.
No comments:
Post a Comment