Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Daily Devotion

I would like to start a daily devotion post on this blog. I fall short of the mark in my consistent walk with Christ and this is just one attempt to meet this goal. I will post a short daily devotional for my sake. If it blesses another than all the better. I may or may not add personal thoughts and comments to the post but any thoughts by readers are not only welcomed but encouraged. Enjoy. All devotions are taken from My Utmost for His Highest unless otherwise noted.

Daily Devotional #1:

Impulsiveness or Discipleship?

“But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith …” (Jude 20).

There was nothing of the nature of impulsive or thoughtless action about our Lord, but only a calm strength that never got into a panic. Most of us develop our Christianity along the lines of our own nature, not along the lines of God’s nature. Impulsiveness is a trait of the natural life, and our Lord always ignores it, because it hinders the development of the life of a disciple. Watch how the Spirit of God gives a sense of restraint to impulsiveness, suddenly bringing us a feeling of self-conscious foolishness, which makes us instantly want to vindicate ourselves. Impulsiveness is all right in a child, but is disastrous in a man or woman—an impulsive adult is always a spoiled person. Impulsiveness needs to be trained into intuition through discipline.

Discipleship is built entirely on the supernatural grace of God. Walking on water is easy to someone with impulsive boldness, but walking on dry land as a disciple of Jesus Christ is something altogether different. Peter walked on the water to go to Jesus, but he “followed Him at a distance” on dry land (Mark 14:54). We do not need the grace of God to withstand crises—human nature and pride are sufficient for us to face the stress and strain magnificently. But it does require the supernatural grace of God to live twenty-four hours of every day as a saint, going through drudgery, and living an ordinary, unnoticed, and ignored existence as a disciple of Jesus. It is ingrained in us that we have to do exceptional things for God—but we do not. We have to be exceptional in the ordinary things of life, and holy on the ordinary streets, among ordinary people—and this is not learned in five minutes.

1 comment:

Les said...

I forget that the life I’m living might very well be what God intended for me to do.

"We have to be exceptional in the ordinary things of life, and holy on the ordinary streets, among ordinary people—and this is not learned in five minutes."

The excuse of waiting for something big to happen is just that; an excuse. My “something big” might be my every day. And God requires of me the same in that every day life that He requires of another living an outwardly extraordinary life. I am to stand exceptional as God’s child no matter where He calls me to stand.