If you know me much, you already know that I really bow down to that favorite idol of mine, "love of ease." Of all the idols to have, this one is just flat out stupid given that I have two little children who need quite a bit of attention. The "easy life" isn't one that parents who are actively seeking to care for their kids are going to have. Still, I want it and my battle each day is to submit to God's plan to conform me more into the image of His Son through little deaths to self. I read the following in Milton Vincent's "A Gospel Primer for Christians" today and felt like God was personally speaking to me. Maybe it will be an encouragement to you as well:
"God is committed to my dying every day, and He calls me to that same commitment. (Luke 9:23) He insists that every hour be my dying hour, and He wants my death on the cross to be as central to my own life story as Christ's death to the gospel story.
Crucifixion hurts. In fact, its heart-wrenching brutality can numb the senses. It is a gasping and bloody affair, and there is nothing nice, pretty, or easy about it. It is not merely death, but excruciating death.
I should expect every day to encounter circumstantial evidence of God's commitment to my dying; and I must seize upon every God-given opportunity to be conformed more fully to Christ's death, no matter the pain involved."
Lord, help me seize upon every moment You give me today to be more conformed to Your own life, saying, 'Not my will, but Yours be done.'
Right there dying with ya, sista.
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