In a recent post by Joel he wrote about his favorite entry in Oswald Chambers' daily devotional, "My Utmost For His Highest." My Utmost is my favorite devotional, but it hasn't always been that way. Not long after I became a Christian, I began to read it daily and I must admit that I understood very little of what I read. As time went on, I grew in knowledge and grace and I began to understand it more and more. I am not sure that I have a favorite entry, but the following has to be near the top of the list. I have blogged about some of this entry before, but I thought I would share it again. It is from March 23.
If the Spirit of God detects anything in you that is wrong, He doesn’t ask you to make it right; He only asks you to accept the light of truth, and then He will make it right. A child of the light will confess sin instantly and stand completely open before God. But a child of the darkness will say, "Oh, I can explain that." When the light shines and the Spirit brings conviction of sin, be a child of the light. Confess your wrongdoing, and God will deal with it. If, however, you try to vindicate yourself, you prove yourself to be a child of the darkness.
What is the proof that carnality has gone? Never deceive yourself; when carnality is gone you will know it-it is the most real thing you can imagine. And God will see to it that you have a number of opportunities to prove to yourself the miracle of His grace. The proof is in a very practical test. You will find yourself saying, "If this had happened before, I would have had the spirit of resentment!" And you will never cease to be the most amazed person on earth at what God has done for you on the inside.
Amen!
3 comments:
To me, this boils down to the religious mask people wear. When I was a religious jerk I had problem in admitting that I did wrong. I wanted to show other how perfect I was and how imperfect others were.
God graciously showed me His unconditional love and grace. and He showed me that He has the same love towards others. It drastically changed my thinking pattern and it is still changing. Today I have less struggle to admit that I do sin.
This sort of thing always reminds me of what Jesus said to Nicodemus.
"This is the judgment: That the Light has come into the world and people loved the darkness rather than the Light. For everyone who does evil, hates the Light and does not come to the Light lest his deeds should be exposed."
But what they don't know is that the Light came to take away our sin! Not expose it! I find myself confessing sin much more often now. Rob Rufus preached a good sermon once and in it he made the point that when you bring things to the Light, there is hope for restoration.
Keeping things in the darkness simply covers it up and does nothing to get rid of it.
Thanks for posting this..very enlightening.
Bino,
My wife shared a wonderful insight with me this morning that lines up with your comment. She said this reminded her of the story of the prodigal son. The prodigal son confessed his sins to his father and his father and was shown grace. The other son was self righteous and refused to show his brother love and grace. He only saw how perfect he was and how imperfect his brother was. Yet he, with his unforgiving spirit, was in need of grace just like the prodigal. The prodigal was grateful and his brother was resentful; the prodigal saw his need for grace and his brother didn’t; one was brought into the light, the other seethed in darkness.
Matthew,
It was very enlightening to me as well. It is a tremendous source of freedom and rest to realize that God doesn't shine his light on our sin in order to condemn us, but that we might draw closer to Him.
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