So often we spend our lives going in circles trying to
discover who we are, and how to fulfill our needs and reach our potential
destiny. But contrary to what our culture tells us, this life is not to be
about us. In fact, our greatest hindrance to experiencing deep effective prayer
is not the world, or even the devil; it is self
within.[i]
Inspiration tells us bluntly, “Self is our greatest enemy, and day by day each
must strive for victory.”[ii] That’s why
we so desperately need to understand the gospel! Because until we stop seeking
to fulfill self’s desires and self’s agenda, and learn to start spending our
time seeking to discover who He is, we will be on a endless “mir-ago-round,”
going nowhere real fast.
Elizabeth Elliot, wife of martyr Jim Elliot, states, "The
point is NOT finding out who you are. Everyone is asking, “Who am I?” and
trying to find themselves. I would
like to say to the whole Christian world, “Would you just forget it! Get off
that question forever and ask Whose
am I? Then direct your energies not to finding out who you are, but to finding
out who God is, Who has called you.”
This was the life-changing point God made to the unqualified Moses, 'Tell them
I AM has sent you.”
“The Christian life can be
explained only in terms of Jesus Christ, and if your life as a Christian can
still be explained in terms of you – your personality, your willpower, your
gift, your talent, your money, your courage, your scholarship, your dedication,
your sacrifice, or your anything – then although you may have the Christian
life, you are not yet living it.”[iii]
Christ has paid an infinite price to give us the keys essential to our spiritual success. So often we are not willing to pay the price to receive them though; The price of time, the
price of inconvenience, the price of faith, the price of patience, the price of
surrender, the price of learning to wait.
"At the cost of infinite
sacrifice and suffering, Christ has provided for us every essential to success
in the Christian warfare. The Holy Spirit brings power that enables man to
overcome. It is through the agency of the Spirit that the government of Satan
is to be subdued. It is the Spirit that convinces of sin, and, with the consent
of the human being, expels sin from the heart… Through [the Holy Spirit] He
infuses spiritual life into the soul, quickening its energies for good,
cleansing from moral defilement, and giving it a fitness for His kingdom. Jesus
has large blessings to bestow, rich gifts to distribute among men. He is the
wonderful Counselor, infinite in wisdom and strength; and if we will
acknowledge the power of His Spirit, and submit to be molded by it, we shall
stand complete in Him. What a thought is this! In Christ ‘dwelleth all the
fullness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in Him.’”[iv]
Instead of worrying about ourselves, let's focus on Him! In Him we are complete! In Him we will have victory! He is our solution. Let's stop looking to self for what only God can give!
In my time of prayer this morning, God led me to Colossians 2:10 - Ye are complete in Him - to answer a need I was filling in my life. And then I came here to see your post was on the very same topic. Love how God reconfirms His messages to our heart!
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