You call Me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am . . . . I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master . . .—John 13:13, 16
To have a master and teacher is not the same thing as being mastered and taught. Having a master and teacher means that there is someone who knows me better than I know myself, who is closer than a friend, and who understands the remotest depths of my heart and is able to satisfy them fully.
It means having someone who has made me secure in the knowledge that he has met and solved all the doubts, uncertainties, and problems in my mind. To have a master and teacher is this and nothing less— “. . . for One is your Teacher, the Christ . . .” (Matthew 23:8).
Our Lord never takes measures to make me do what He wants. Sometimes I wish God would master and control me to make me do what He wants, but He will not. And at other times I wish He would leave me alone, and He does not.
“You call Me Teacher and Lord . . .”— but is He? Teacher, Master, and Lord have little place in our vocabulary. We prefer the wordsSavior, Sanctifier, and Healer. The only word that truly describes the experience of being mastered is love, and we know little about love as God reveals it in His Word.The way we use the word obey is proof of this. In the Bible, obedience is based on a relationship between equals; for example, that of a son with his father. Our Lord was not simply God’s servant— He was His Son. “. . . though He was a Son,yet He learned obedience. . .” (Hebrews 5:8). If we are consciously aware that we are being mastered, that idea itself is proof that we have no master. If that is our attitude toward Jesus, we are far away from having the relationship He wants with us. He wants us in a relationship where He is so easily our Master and Teacher that we have no conscious awareness of it—a relationship where all we know is that we are His to obey.
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September 22, 2010
Journal Entry for Today-JDV
It is an interesting lesson to learn that we are to do nothing except let Jesus live through us. It is a very different process, this resting and trusting; knowing that God has already met all our needs in Christ Jesus. It is a paradox and requires unlearning a great deal while learning that in striving and trying to trust God, I let my “self” into an equation where it cannot exist.
I ask God to make me more and more aware of His victory already in place for the world and my life. I ask Him to live through me and make me aware that to trust and obey Him is a privilege. I begin to know that whatever He has in store for me is the very best there could be for my life……..and the very best He has provided becomes ever more blessed as I make myself available for Him to touch others through me.
And God says…”There is no trying in the sanctified lie. It is an effortless existence when you die to yourself-and Jesus lives through you. The evidence of living a sanctified life is not in the blessings you receive or even the blessing you become to others. The evidence of a sanctified and connected life is the peace that surrounds you as you take up the weightless yoke of Jesus, and trust that He is already victorious; He meets all your needs and will meet many needs of others through you. Praise Him, and His victory over all that you need……. and worship Him. Everything you need I have provided in Him.”
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