Today's My Utmost for His Highest reading talks about God's provision for us - that we do not need to worry about our needs in our day-to-day living:
But for the mentally ill, who cannot simply think their way into happiness, or relinquish what little, if any, constructive instinct they hold, in trustful abandonment to God, being able to follow Jesus is impossible.
So what is the solution? What I have found is that accepting my devastating mistakes, I can then finally allow God's radiance to permeate me, and then I can experience peace. Jesus said that he came to give us peace that the world does not know (John 14.27), but for the afflicted who cannot reason accordingly, that peace is evasive, even though a person might truly want to yoke with Christ.
We think that if we admit a mistake, we forever seal it into our being, chaining ourselves to it; but really the opposite is true. When admitting a mistake, we are then ready to be made anew, rebuilt in God's fashion. In confession we are actually freed of error: God wipes our slate clean (Hebrews 10.16-18).
When I admit my delinquencies, they no longer have power over me. When there is an ownership I have the right to give it away, because it is mine to give. And when I do give it to God I become brand new. And that is true love of God:
"Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?" Matthew 6.28-30And yet Oswald Chambers teaches by way of this passage that when we let the cares of the world in, we do not permit the grace of God to enter us, thereby not receiving what we need, or blessed to experience abundance, either.
But for the mentally ill, who cannot simply think their way into happiness, or relinquish what little, if any, constructive instinct they hold, in trustful abandonment to God, being able to follow Jesus is impossible.
So what is the solution? What I have found is that accepting my devastating mistakes, I can then finally allow God's radiance to permeate me, and then I can experience peace. Jesus said that he came to give us peace that the world does not know (John 14.27), but for the afflicted who cannot reason accordingly, that peace is evasive, even though a person might truly want to yoke with Christ.
We think that if we admit a mistake, we forever seal it into our being, chaining ourselves to it; but really the opposite is true. When admitting a mistake, we are then ready to be made anew, rebuilt in God's fashion. In confession we are actually freed of error: God wipes our slate clean (Hebrews 10.16-18).
When I admit my delinquencies, they no longer have power over me. When there is an ownership I have the right to give it away, because it is mine to give. And when I do give it to God I become brand new. And that is true love of God:
"Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God." - Romans 12.2I can't renew my mind by faith alone, because my mind is debased. But when I can say to anyone who is willing to listen, yes, I missed the mark, that is when I can be accountable and someone who God wants me to be - a disciple who can practice real worship, real renewal to a pre-fallen time. And that, dear friends, is for us all. It is real redemption demonstrated through a peace that this world cannot give. Amen.
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