From My Utmost for His Highest

He Himself has said . . . . So we may boldly say . . . —Hebrews 13

What exactly is God's assurance in our lives? Can we count on Him or is there something in us that makes it work? Do I have a responsibility in all this?

In A Rooster Once Crowed, Chapter 9-Tune Into Life's Belief, I list all the instances through Acts Chapter 8 where we are called to "believe." Taken together, this provides a profound list of promises, assurances and costs associated with belief. Some are great gifts, but others are a little tougher to hear. Here's a list through Mark (also, the links below will take you to the full chapter to see it in context): 

Then he believed in the Lord; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.
     - Genesis 15:6

If they will not believe you or heed the witness of the first sign, they may believe the witness of the last sign
     - Exodus 4:8

    From My Utmost for His Highest

The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him . . . —Psalm 25

Chambers asks, "Have we ever let God tell us any of His joys? Or are we continually telling God our secrets, leaving Him no time to talk to us? At the beginning of our Christian life we are full of requests to God. But then we find that God wants to get us into an intimate relationship with Himself— to get us in touch with His purposes."

Consider this excerpt from A Rooster Once Crowed:

Listen. Have you ever had lunch with a friend who shows up late, talks for the whole hour, telling you exactly what’s going on in her life and then throws twenty dollars on the table midsentence and runs out? You’d say, “No. Wait a minute. Let me tell you what I think. Don’t you care what’s going on with me? You’ve got a couple of things wrong about me and I want to make some plans with you later. Wait.”

    From My Utmost for His Highest

. . . that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us . . . —John 17

Chambers encourages us to know that we will one day be one with the Father just as Jesus is one with the Father. 

But what does that mean? How can we know the nature of OUR relationship with God if we don't try and grasp the relationship that God and Jesus have with each other.  Let's look at this as we consider . .