Jesus does not ask me to die for Him, but to lay down my life for Him. Peter said to the Lord, “I will lay down my life for Your sake,” and he meant it ( John 13:37 ). He had a magnificent sense of the heroic. For us to be incapable of making this same statement Peter made would be a bad thing— our sense of duty is only fully realized through our sense of heroism. Has the Lord ever asked you, “Will you lay down your life for My sake?” ( John 13:38 ). It is much easier to die than to lay down your life day in and day out with the sense of the high calling of God. We are not made for the bright-shining moments of life, but we have to walk in the light of them in our everyday ways. There was only one bright-shining moment in the life of Jesus, and that was on the Mount of Transfiguration. It was there that He emptied Himself of His glory for the second time, and then came down into the demon-possessed valley (seeMark 9:1-29 ). For thirty-three years Jesus laid down His life to do the will of His Father. “By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren” ( 1 John 3:16  ). Yet it is contrary to our human nature to do so.

If I am a friend of Jesus, I must deliberately and carefully lay down my life for Him. It is a difficult thing to do, and thank God that it is. Salvation is easy for us, because it cost God so much. But the exhibiting of salvation in my life is difficult. God saves a person, fills him with the Holy Spirit, and then says, in effect, “Now you work it out in your life, and be faithful to Me, even though the nature of everything around you is to cause you to be unfaithful.” And Jesus says to us, “. . . I have called you friends. . . .” Remain faithful to your Friend, and remember that His honor is at stake in your bodily life.

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Journal Entry for Today-JDV

June 16 2010

I wonder if I am connected this morning. Did I remember my connection as the first thing of my day, or did I run out and begin without Him again? Sometimes (even though I know better) I think that if I run out and begin my day and forget to give myself and my day to God then perhaps I will not be connected. Maybe I will not feel that intimate completeness that has become so, so right. Sometimes I wonder if I forget Him for a minute or two will I have to fight my way back to where I forgot Him in the hurrying around of the day or crisis or….

And God says…”You can do nothing to separate yourself from Me. I am with you through it all, all the time. You may stop hearing Me, you may not be open to what I am saying, but I am there, all the time speaking and reaching and holding you.

When you go off and try to find knowledge, or wisdom or accuracy for your work, distracted as you scurry around looking for answers, perhaps you could remember that I have the answers, for everything, and I will provide them.  There is no reason to run hither and yon, thinking you must do this or that first. There is no reason to believe or feel like you must get this or that accomplished and then reach out for me.

I have all that you need, all the time, and there is no reason to be separated from me……ever. When you believe that you must go off and accomplish this or that you are in effect saying you do not trust Me.

Give Me your life, all of it, all the time. Start with Me in all things, for all things and observe the change in your world.