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Monday, October 25, 2010

We Don't Aim High Enough

In the bible we read of people who pursue God with the entirety of their lives. Psalms 1 writes about blessed being the man who meditates on the Law of God 'day and night'. In Psalms 63, David speaks of 'remembering God upon his bed and meditating on Him in the watches of the night'. Hebrews 11 talks about the many people who by faith, spend their lives for God and 'died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth'. We read about Paul who considers everything (yes, everything) a loss because of the surpassing greatness of knowing God in Philippians 3.

We read about all these people but they remain distant figures. We do not look to Paul and think that we can have the same degree of spiritual life that he had. We do not look to Abraham and think that we can have the same amount of faith that he had. No, they remain biblical figures far beyond our reach and we do not even consider trying to have the same passion for God that they had.

Yes, God did not call everyone to become 'big'; He did not call everyone to become a pastor, a preacher or an overseas missionary. For most, we may lead small and simple lives and glorify God nonetheless. But God did call every believer to be conformed to the image of His son Jesus Christ our Lord. In fact He predestined us to be conformed to the image of His son (Romans 8:29). So all of us are called to be like Christ and to put on our new self, created after the likeness God in true righteousness and holiness. Could there be one image of Christ for Paul, another for Abraham and one of a lesser degree for us? Are we not then to seek to be like Christ just as much as Paul, Abraham or any of the saints before us were?

We don't aim high enough. No, we don't believe we can achieve such a feat. To be so spiritual is simply so beyond us that it seldom comes across our minds to truly want or attempt to have it.

One of the things that really kept me from coming closer to God is my inaptness. There were many areas of my life that I was ashamed of and that I did not think I could surrender to God. In fact I'm still struggling with so much sin that it overwhelms me everyday. And when I looked at others around me, I longed for so many things that they had that I wonder how can a person like me glorify God before others when I was so much less. Struggling for so long, trying to find my way, God let me realise that it's not about me, that God is so much greater than all of this.

Yes, it's not about us.

The power to change, to surrender and to give our entire lives as a pleasing sacrifice comes from God and God alone. It is by His grace that we turn to Him, that we are transformed into His image, not because we are strong or sincere - yet we are strong because He makes us strong. He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will He not also with him graciously give us all things? (Rom 8:20) Will he not give us grace we need to turn to Him in entirety? Instead, we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose (Rom 8:28).

Lastly, here is something from Mark 10. A young man came to Jesus, knelt before Him and asked Him, "Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?". To which we finally get the passage where Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” Jesus said all. It seems difficult, no, impossible but in a few verses down, Jesus gives the solution - "With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God."

We are called to imitate not only Paul, not only Moses, not only Calvin but Christ Jesus, our Lord, to whose image we are to conform. Every single moment, every single action, every single breath. With all our heart and with all our soul and with all our strength and with all our mind.

All things are possible with God. Let us pray.

Labels: faith

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