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past Devotional.|
Does it sometimes
seem difficult to tell the difference between the privilege of
sonship and the obligation to live righteously? The two go hand in hand. There is an old song that ends: "If I live a holy life, Shun the wrong and do the right, I know the Lord will make a way for me!" Many, many Christians think that way. It seems to most of the Christian world thinks that we are placed on some kind of divine scale, and if we do certain things, the Lord will be our Lord. Well, to a certain extent, that is true in that there must be submission in order to have Lordship. But what seems to elude so many is that we live in a fallen world, and there is a struggle with the flesh that will not end until heaven. We learn many things by making the wrong choices, though sincere, and we are not allowed to self-evaluate. Did you hear that? The Holy Spirit will convict us, and we must present ourselves in regular times of repentance and confession. But we do not have the capacity to know when we are right all the time. We are sons! And we have a Father who will hasten to chastise us in a perfect way. When we present ourselves to the Lord as living sacrifices, He does not ask us to know it all - He only asks us to present ourselves. That means a soldier-servant will learn many, many lessons in humility, and finally he will understand that he is not the standard for right and wrong, but he is in service to the Righteous One. I will not shove my nose into my naval and stagnate in self-investigation. I will go forward. I will respond to the Light that reveals my sin and shortcomings, and I will take responsibility - but I must submit to the One who sees me as perfect because of His Blood. Real submission is requires a vigor that is not human - it is not the result of human perfection without the Holy Spirit. |
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