Day 3: The Costs Are Total

3. The salvation that cost God everything to fully achieve costs man everything to fully receive.

An important step in pursuing the goal of change is to hold everything in an open hand before God. He must be able to access everything and everyone that you are and have. There can be no person, no material object, and no aspect of your personality that God does not have your express permission to remove, or alter in any way He sees fit. You must give Him permission to work in your life — He will not transform you against your will.

What do we have that He has not given to us? I know that sounds cliché, but ponder it for a moment. Is there any person in any way associated with your life that would so devastate you to lose, that it would derail your relationship with Jesus? A spouse, a child, a parent, a bosom friend? Whom do you love with your whole heart? Picture that person. If God, in His wisdom, saw that your transformation (the gospel goal, mind you) would be aided greatly by the (temporary) removal of that person from your life, how would you respond? A beloved child, being lowered into the ground in a casket before you…what goes through your head? Is life over? All hope gone? Is God now despised in your eyes? Do you still trust and love Him, even though your world is upside-down?

When my brother Bryan died, my life was a whirlwind. Yes, I hurt, in a way that was unfamiliar to me, having never lost a close loved-one before. A friend said it best at Bryan’s memorial service: it feels like your heart is being ripped out of your chest from the back. Yet underneath it all was something strong, something firm, something priceless. God loved Bryan more than I ever could. God had need of Bryan "on the other side." Did I believe it?

I loved Bryan, and because of that I held him in an open hand before Jesus, who loved him more. I grieved, but not as those that have no hope:

1Thess 4:13, 14: But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.

That having been settled beforehand, proper focus could be sought. If a person in my life is taken, I will see him/her again. If a material item is lost/stolen, it can be replaced or done without. If a part of my personality needs to be altered/removed, it must fall to the sword, no matter how painful or how long it takes. A thing or person or part of me that I do not allow Him access to is a place where all progress will stop.

 

Comments

[Paula]

Lovely thoughts. It's a painful process when God begins removing our crutches.