You are Not Your Own

     From My Utmost for His Highest

Do you not know that . . . you are not your own? —1 Corinthians 6:19

In today’s lesson, I’m trying to get my mind around “God divides the private life of His saints, and makes it a highway for the world on one hand and for Himself on the other.” Is that a highway where the things of the world roll out and He rolls in? Is it a highway where He and the world enter and leave freely? I’m not sure, but I’ve seen both in my life.

For the former, I’m not sure I’d call it a freeway (there’s a traffic jam more often than I’d like), but I can see Christ moving things of this world out of my life and moving other things in. Things I cared deeply about before, are no longer of consequence (and I try to keep them that way), while other things that I felt privately that I’d deal with later, or not at all, or just didn’t register, now have a much greater urgency—like the poor, non-believers, my connection to God.

For the latter, I’ve seen that I’m much more willing to give the world and God freer reign in my private life. Some of the things that I’ve shared here, I’d have been unwilling to share just 18 months before. I may have missed its meaning entirely, but let me know if you felt differently on it.

It’s heartening—the last portion of this message when OC is talking about how most of us are reticent to pass through the first doorway of trial/heartbreak. He says:
We sit down at the door of God’s purpose and enter a slow death through self-pity. And all the so-called Christian sympathy of others helps us to our deathbed. But God will not. He comes with the grip of the pierced hand of His Son, as if to say, ‘Enter into fellowship with Me; arise and shine.’ If God can accomplish His purposes in this world through a broken heart, then why not thank Him for breaking yours?

I love the visual of God coming with the grip of the pierced hand; this reminder that God saved us by scattering His Son, He won us by losing, He got all power by giving it away. It’s an incredible idea and one that’s nearly impossible to fathom, but God’s purposes in this world are accomplished through ways that we would never choose, and can never hope to understand. But He’s not a cruel God who takes and gives life from afar.

Because He sent His Son, Whom He truly loved and owned, we can know that anything He takes from us has already been paid in full. Even if I love it, I must maintain perspective that all that I have and have been entrusted with belong to Him, just as Jesus belonged to Him when God sent Him. God understands our suffering because He suffered before us. I’m not sure this is something that I fully grasp, but it’s something that I’m trying to understand. If anyone else has another hold on the Truth, please share.

I love you.

#truthbeatslove