May we meditate and humbly be grateful for the gift of salvation in Jesus. Hopefully the following comments from My Utmost For His Highest by Oswald Chambers will open a new revelation for us all.

“I stand justified, not because I am sorry for my sin, not because I have repented, but because of what Jesus has done. The Spirit of God brings it with a breaking, all-over light, and I know, though I do not know how, that I am saved…we are acceptable with God not because we have obeyed, not because we have promised to give up things, but because of the death of Christ and in no other way.”

Oswald goes on to tell us that this salvation we receive brings with it an “attitude of holiness”. This attitude then leads us to “agonizing repentance” and “an amazing realization that the love of God commended itself to me…while I cared nothing about Him. The effect in me of this salvation “is obedience, and service and prayer.”

What a great God we serve! He not only tells us what to do in wisdom, but actually places in us the ability to do it. Praise God from whom all blessings flow! Endure the fire—it’s producing pure gold!

Often, as we look around in this world, we find no good thing. The heart of man, without God, cannot do any more than be evil because the nature he is born with is broken…not by God who made it perfect, but by Adam’s disobedience. People sometimes forget that they are born with a broken "thinker", “wanter” and “feeler” and yet that is what they use to make all their decisions, about life, and even about God. When things don’t work well, based on that brokenness, they often shake their fists at God and get even further away from the only One who can stop this incessant cycle.

God is over and above all this world and all that is in it. We must encourage ourselves and others that God knows and we don’t! That’s why He calls to us and tells us to come to Him. He is the refuge, the safety, the quiet and the calm. He has all the answers. He knows how to fit your schedule and requirements smoothly and how to give you strength to do the tasks at hand.

Stop saying silently (and out loud) that, “I’m too tired”, “too busy”, “trying to get it all done”, “can’t pay the bills”, “can’t take it any more”, etc. Stop crying over spilled milk, stop mourning over what someone did to you, stop lamenting over what you’ve done. This is not the life God has for His saints. Pain and suffering are a part of the construction of a saint, but not the whole life! Complaints, doubts, despairs, angers, etc.—these are warning signs that you are not in the fruit of the Spirit of God, but rather in the spirit of man.

Keep praying, keep praising, hold your tongue, take every thought captive to Christ and you will come above all that was in your life or is in your life now. We are promised good success, a full life and abundance from out God. Keep going until you get it! Endure the fire: it’s producing pure gold!

Sometimes, in our struggle with the sins that so easily beset – envy, anger, bitterness, outbursts, jealousy, gossip, slander, etc. – we struggle with the struggle! It’s a sticky predicament that Satan wants to happen over and over. But God has made a way out of this struggle…it is the risen life of Jesus in us. As we pray and praise, forgive and repent, seek and seek and seek, we find. And this new life He promised, rises in us.

Oswald Chambers states, “when I am born again from above, I receive from the risen Lord His very life…His resurrection means for us that we are raised to His risen life, not our old life…when once you have seen Jesus, you can never be the same, other things do not appeal as they used to…Have I made this decision about sin that it must be killed right out in me?...not curbed or suppressed or counteracted, but crucified? Take time alone with God…make the moral decision that sin in you must be put to death…I cannot reckon myself dead unto sin unless I have been through this radical issue of will before God.”

So don’t struggle any longer, it’s not your job to change your inside – that’s God’s job. For only He can do this. What we must do is worship, pray, praise, repent, go to fellowship, read the Bible in His light and obey His direction. All the rest comes as God completes each new phase of His project in us. So have faith, have patience and wait…with yourself and with others. God’s good work in you will come to pass…”He who began a good work in you will perfect it.” (Philippians 1:6)

Hmm – “Let go and let God” should take on a whole new meaning for us: He loves us…let us love one another. Endure the fire: it’s producing pure gold!