The Delight of Sacrifice

February 24th, 2017 by JDVaughn Leave a reply »

I will very gladly spend and be spent for your souls… —2 Corinthians 12:15

Once “the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit,” we deliberately begin to identify ourselves with Jesus Christ’s interests and purposes in others’ lives (Romans 5:5). And Jesus has an interest in every individual person. We have no right in Christian service to be guided by our own interests and desires. In fact, this is one of the greatest tests of our relationship with Jesus Christ. The delight of sacrifice is that I lay down my life for my Friend, Jesus (see John 15:13). I don’t throw my life away, but I willingly and deliberately lay it down for Him and His interests in other people. And I do this for no cause or purpose of my own. Paul spent his life for only one purpose— that he might win people to Jesus Christ. Paul always attracted people to his Lord, but never to himself. He said, “I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some” (1 Corinthians 9:22).

When someone thinks that to develop a holy life he must always be alone with God, he is no longer of any use to others. This is like putting himself on a pedestal and isolating himself from the rest of society. Paul was a holy person, but wherever he went Jesus Christ was always allowed to help Himself to his life. Many of us are interested only in our own goals, and Jesus cannot help Himself to our lives. But if we are totally surrendered to Him, we have no goals of our own to serve. Paul said that he knew how to be a “doormat” without resenting it, because the motivation of his life was devotion to Jesus. We tend to be devoted, not to Jesus Christ, but to the things which allow us more spiritual freedom than total surrender to Him would allow. Freedom was not Paul’s motive at all. In fact, he stated, “I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren…” (Romans 9:3). Had Paul lost his ability to reason? Not at all! For someone who is in love, this is not an overstatement. And Paul was in love with Jesus Christ.

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February 24 2017

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Good morning Lord and thank you for the devotionals; Oswald Chambers and Richard Rohr’s, https://cac.org/dreaming-compassion-2017-02-24/ . At the end of the day, David and I felt led to study the notion that 1) In whatever we do, if we want You to be leading, we must be present in the moment, and 2) focus on the vision, the goal and not the elements or pieces of the vision. It seems that when we are concerned about elements of our lives, like discipleship or managing our time or the proximity of our houses to our families, or our lack of funds to pay for tuition, that we are living inside of our human big four; to be right, look good, feel good and be in control.  As we talked, prayed and debated Your lesson for today, it struck us that if we really want to have victory, we simply start and finish with You. That if we surrender (all our concerns and qualifications)…even ourselves to You, and simply seek Your face, Your love, Your guidance, that we no longer need to be concerned about our lack of anything.

 

And God says…”Yes. That is right. When you let go of your concerns (the tares, and cares…details) of your life, let go of trying to control everything including yourself, and follow Me, I will give you a vision, you simply focus on that; everything else will follow. My people perish for lack of vision. Acknowledge Me in all your ways and do not rely on your own understanding and will make your paths straight. Delight yourself in the Lord and I will give you the desires of your heart.”

“You can stop trying to be a better Christian, husband, father,  friend and or employee. Stop trying to get better at time management, discipleship, goal setting and being more productive. Simply take time to surrender all of that and connect with Me. Let Me then take care of the issues of your life and you will, as a result, become a better Christian, husband, father,  friend and or employee. Focus on Jesus and the vision I will provide.   Remember to seek first the Kingdom of God, which is Jesus, and I will give you everything else you require for daily living.”

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