Reverence and Awe

» Today's reading at Blue Letter Bible

Morning: "Will ye also go away?" - John 6:67

I had a tough time laying hold of Spurgeon's thoughts this morning - Spurgeon is asking us to reason, as believers, remembering Christ's friendship, comfort, and love, and conclude that there is no good reason to leave Him.

I can think of plenty of reasons to leave Jesus - all bad reasons, and all because of my sin nature: hardness of heart, rebellion, selfishness, etc.

But when I am in sin, those are exactly the times when I am least likely to use reason to stay with the Lord. If my walk depended on my own reasoning ability, I, and all of you dear readers, would fail miserably, and fail often.

What then shall we do? Rejoice! Our walk depends not on confidence in our reasoning, but on the goodness of God, who redeems us and causes us to walk in newness of life as we surrender our lives to Him, with faith only in His merits!

Paul says "walk worthy" in Ephesians 4:1, not by virtue of our reasoning ability, but by virtue of the power of the resurrection of Christ, which put all things under His feet, giving Him to us, His church, to be head over all things. Paul calls this the hope of His calling, in Ephesians 1, and He calls it our inheritance as adopted sons of God.

Paul reminds us in Philippians 3:21 that it is Christ who will transform us, conforming us to Him, by His resurrection power, by which He subdues all things to Himself.

He sudues all things! Hey, I'm one of those "all things". You are one of those "all things". Christ is subduing you, and me. We are being gifted by the Father with obedience to follow Christ, because of His great love for us. It is the love of Christ which compels us. And He, and His love, are faithful, even when I am not! It is not my love of Christ, but His love!

This is my great hope! I've been sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise (Ephesians 1:13), who guarantees my inheritance!

I rejoice in this, and I want to follow Christ and walk worthy, with all my confidence in Him!

Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. - [1Jo 3:2-3 NKJV]

Labels: Devotional, Morning and Evening, Spurgeon