Devotional thoughts - Lent 2013 - day 43

I was just getting ready to leave for a prayer meeting yesterday when things started coming up that initially looked like would cause me to be late, and eventually would cause me to miss it altogether.  Though I had wanted to go to the meeting, I had a peace about missing it, and thought I was okay with that, believing that what I was doing was what I should be doing, what the LORD would have me do in caring for and assisting others, and otherwise taking care of some of my responsibilities.  But driving along, the LORD seemed to say to me, “Going to the prayer meeting was for you; what you chose to do instead was for Me.”

Hmmm … in the perfect light of His love, it seemed the LORD was exposing my heart and how He is working in it to will and to do His good pleasure.  I admit that I had been momentarily tempted to go on to the prayer meeting without taking the time or effort to address some of the needs of which I became aware; but I knew that would not have been the “right thing to do”:

James 4:7

Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.

 

1 John 3:16-18

¹⁶ Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

¹⁷ But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?

¹⁸ My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.

I am grateful for the LORD’s direction through the devotionals I have read over the past few days in even preparing my heart to make the right decision and resist the temptation to do things according to my plans instead of following the Holy Spirit’s guidance.  For example, part of Monday’s God Calling said:

Your heights of success will be won by the daily persistent doing of what I have said.

Daily, steady persistence. Like the wearing away of a stone by steady drops of water, so will your daily persistence wear away all the difficulties and gain success for you, and secure your help for others.

Yesterday’s God Calling said, in part:

I am with you to guide you and help you.

"I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt
go: I will guide thee with mine eye." - Psalm 32:8

Monday night’s God at Eventide said:

Walk in My Ways. Follow the path I have bidden you tread.

Humble yourselves before Me, and keep My laws, so shall you have perfect peace.

I am with you to give you the needed strength. Go forward unafraid. Grow in Grace, and in the knowledge of Me, your Master and your Friend. Count all the learning of earth's wisest as nothing compared with the wisdom that I, your Lord, would show you.

Love and learn. You have much, very much to do for My Kingdom. So seek to become perfect. Sift your motives. All that is unworthy cast aside, uproot its inner growth.

You are freely forgiven. Forgive freely, largely, wonderfully.

And last night’s God at Eventide said:

Go forward, glad indeed.

Walk with Me until your faltering, flagging footsteps learn to keep in step with Me, and gain a firmness and a confidence unknown before.

Walk with Me until a gladsome rhythm reveals the conquest-spirit that you draw from Me and your whole being thrills with the joy of being, doing, and even suffering with Me.

Thus in loving Communion with Me you learn to know my needs and My wishes for others.

"Hear am I, Lord, send me" shows very surely a child-like eagerness, the eagerness of love, even the eagerness for adventure for My cause.

For in My Secret Service there is surely the thrill of adventure.

Then, today’s My Utmost for His Highest seems to sum up all of this as it says, in part:

Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place . . . —Revelation 4:1

A higher state of mind and spiritual vision can only be achieved through the higher practice of personal character. If you live up to the highest and best that you know in the outer level of your life, God will continually say to you, “Friend, come up even higher.” There is also a continuing rule in temptation which calls you to go higher; but when you do, you only encounter other temptations and character traits. Both God and Satan use the strategy of elevation, but Satan uses it in temptation, and the effect is quite different. When the devil elevates you to a certain place, he causes you to fasten your idea of what holiness is far beyond what flesh and blood could ever bear or achieve. Your life becomes a spiritual acrobatic performance high atop a steeple. You cling to it, trying to maintain your balance and daring not to move. But when God elevates you by His grace into heavenly places, you find a vast plateau where you can move about with ease.

Compare this week in your spiritual life with the same week last year to see how God has called you to a higher level. We have all been brought to see from a higher viewpoint. Never allow God to show you a truth which you do not instantly begin to live up to, applying it to your life. Always work through it, staying in its light.

Your growth in grace is not measured by the fact that you haven’t turned back, but that you have an insight and understanding into where you are spiritually. Have you heard God say, “Come up higher,” not audibly on the outer level, but to the innermost part of your character?

LORD, I can only humbly, say “thank You” … for the greater degree of intimacy with and knowledge of You that You have initiated and facilitated, for transforming me from the inside out such as to be conformed to the image of Your dear Son, for exposing my motives and attitudes, for allowing me to repent and be forgiven and cleansed, for ever leading and guiding me, for an awareness of Your continual Presence with me, for all that You do that my words cannot even express, for all that You are that my mind cannot even comprehend, for Your love that surpasses all knowledge … thank You. 

… and my journey with Him continues …