Every Day Light 4/28

April 28
The future - safe with Him
For reading & meditation: Colossians 3:1-15
"For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God." (v.3)

We are discovering that when we are surrendered to the certain, we need never surrender to the uncertain. Sure of God, we do not have to be sure of anything else. A Christian who shrinks from walking the road of ambiguity and uncertainty in company with his Lord is saying, in effect: "My trust is in myself and not in Him." We don't like to put it in those terms, of course, because it challenges our self-interest. And if there is one thing we must learn about the self, it is that it does not like to be challenged, confronted or dislodged. The self, however, must be disciplined to die. It must die to being first in order to live as second. That is why the centre of the kingdom of God is a cross. We must go through spiritually what Jesus went through physically - we must die and be buried in order to experience a resurrection into freedom and fullness of life. A man who was part of a small group who had met together to deepen their spiritual understanding said: "I see what I need, and I see that I don't want what I need." In those words, he identified the struggle we all have with this business of self. Who is to be first - myself or God? That decision decides all other decisions - it is a seed decision. The moment you fully surrender to Christ, you automatically die to your own intentions and purposes and you gain a new perspective on life. From then on, you live in a state of Christ-reference - not self-reference. You look out at ambiguity and uncertainty and say: "I may not know what the future holds - so what? I know who holds the future."

Prayer:

My Father and my God, I see now that I've been out of focus, and all of life's pictures have been blurred and distorted. Help me to see life from a new point of view - Your point of view. In Jesus' Name I ask it. Amen.

For further study:

2 Timothy 2:1-13; Romans 6:6; 2 Corinthians 4:11

1. Which saying is trustworthy?

2. How does this apply to you?