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Topic: Failure (03/01/04)
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TITLE: Failure By Jenks Brutus 03/04/04 |
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As I sit alone, after having communed with my friend Jesus this morning, the thought of “failure” comes to my mind. During my time with Him, He took me to a little book I have in my library entitled “Absolute Surrender” by Andrew Murray. In the chapter entitled “Having begun in the Spirit”, Andrew Murray makes the point that we as Christians often make the mistake of trying to live the Christian life in our own strength without the power of the Holy Spirit. In his book, Murray states why he believes that the churches today are lacking so much power to live above the pull of the flesh. The reason he gives is that too many Christians are not depending on the Holy Spirit for help in their Christian lives. They believe that they have been pardon, and by faith have responded to Christ’s great sacrifice, forgetting that the same Holy Spirit that convicts the world of sin is the same Holy Spirit that convicts the world of righteousness. The same faith it took to respond to the Holy Spirit’s prompting in confessing your sins to God is the same faith that is needed to live the Christian life. Romans 8:13 says “…but if, through being under the sway of the spirit, you are putting your old bodily habits to death, you will live.” (Weymouth Translation)
Too many times we get into trouble because we have resorted to do things in our strength and not in the strength of Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit. How many times have the Holy Spirit called for our hearts only to find us saying “No I’ll do this on my own this time?” One morning, after having my morning devotion with my friend Jesus, and no sooner had I finished praying when my sons came into the bedroom and started to play around. As my boys often do, they started to play in the drawer were my wife keeps the socks. Not only were they looking in the drawer full of socks, but they were also taking the socks out and flinging them all around the room. As I was witnessing this, everything in me wanted to lash out at them. All sorts of ill-thought raced through my mind, and the flesh was reeling. Now, in this condition, if I would have disciplined my boys’ right there and then I would have reacted in the flesh and my boy’s hurt feelings would have been the result of my flesh in an unsurrendered position. What I like about God the most is that He never leaves us alone to fight the battle of the flesh. In the quietness of my mind, the Holy Spirit was calling me to surrender those feelings of frustration towards my sons. He said to me, “Give me those thoughts, Jenks.” By His grace I chose to surrender my will to God, and thus receive power to act in a Christ-like manner towards my sons. This work of surrendering, and receiving power came from God; I just had to consent to the power available to help me from reacting in an un-Christ-like manner. Most Christians believe that in this work of overcoming the sins in their lives is theirs and God’s responsibility. They forget what Paul stated in Galatians 2:20 “Not “I” but Christ.” The work must be all of Christ and none of us. Someone once said, “The plan of salvation has been laid down to deep to fail.” Man’s part in this plan of salvation is immeasurably small. That small part is yielding our wills, through the power of the Holy Spirit, to allow God to help us in saying no to the flesh.
What does all of this have to do with “Failure”? As Christians, we become failures when we rely on the flesh on a daily basis to help us in our daily life. We become failures when we, who have begun in the Spirit, return to a life of fleshly dependency. When through the Spirit, we walk, (Galatians 5:16) our lives will be one of continual victory for “…thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” “But as many as received Him to them gives He the power to become the sons of God, and to those that believe on His name. Failure, I do not think so! Especially when Jesus has already gained the victory for our sins.