Today’s reading in My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers combined with my daily readings in II Chronicles, Matthew, Psalms, and Proverbs convicted me deeply. To live the consecrated life instead of the distracted life, I must reflect upon Matthew 6:33-34, daily if necessary.
Chambers writes for January 26: ‘Did Jesus Christ lie to us? Are we experiencing the “much more” he promised? If we are not, it is because we are not obeying the life God has given us and have cluttered our minds with confusing thoughts and worries. How much time have we wasted asking God senseless questions while we should be absolutely free to concentrated on our service to Him? Consecration is the act of continually separating myself form everything except that which God has appointed me to do. It is not a one-time experience but an ongoing process. Am I continually separating myself and looking to God every day of my life?’
Much of living the consecrated life means remembering my identity. I must return to my decision to bury my old life, and remember who I am. Feeling pulled in many directions? No peace? What clutter and distraction did I allow to creep in? Did Jesus lie to me? Pray about it now.
Some of the distractions come things that I should have refused to take on, but some of them turned int ‘have tos’ or ‘must dos.’ Some of these transform into acts of love and part of living the consecrated life if I give them over to God and ask him to help me, to make me more effective, and to give me wisdom.
My responsibility of believing means laying my distractions at his feet. A day dedicated to fasting and prayer offer good time to go through this process of identifying distractions and returning to the consecrated life. Anna goes through this process in Food in God’s Place.
Not Just for Some but All
Jesus calls all Christians to the consecrated life. I am ‘set apart.’ The consecrated life meanst walking with Jesus daily and asking like in yesterday’s post, ‘Jesus what do I do?’ instead of ‘What would Jesus do?’ To ask the first question, I must believe that he exists and he will reward me. This begins the consecrated life. Daily affirming my identity in him means living the consecrated life.
Did Jesus lie to me? No, I just forgot to believe.
