Lately in my quiet times i have been getting into a couple of different books. I have been reading Philippians, Job, and Isaiah 53. I just want to quickly go over a couple of things that God has been revealing to me lately in the Word. Some things that I have really come to realization about myself lately is that sometimes I....
Don't always understand that God is in control of EVERYTHING. Sometimes throughout the day I just go throughout the day without really understanding that God of the universe orchestrates everything that I go through and has me at certain places at certain times for certain reasons. GOD IS SOVEREIGN. I finally truly started to understand this when reading the book of Job. At the beginning of the book the angels and even Satan present themselves before the Lord and God asks Satan where he has been. Satan talks about how he has been going back and forth through the world. And God asks Satan if he has seen his servant Job who is as blameless and upright as they come. Satan then tries to deny this because he says that he is only a loyal servant because God has hand his hand in every aspect of his life constantly blessing everything in Job's life. Satan says "if you take everything away from him he will curse your name." So God says ok then go and take everything from him but do not lay a hand on him and Satan does exactly that following God's orders. This just showed me that even Satan is on a leash and cant do anything unless God says. That is one of the greatest examples of how Sovereign our God is. The rest of the story is amazing so i encourage you to read Job or at least the first couple chapters of Job.
Tend to put confidence in my own flesh and settle for mediocrity. I will sometimes become content with where I am in my walk and the Bible always smacks me in the face to tell me that I can never stop growing and striving for more Jesus. In Philippians 3 Paul talks about how, as the body of Christ we cannot put our confidence in the flesh. He explains that not even he (and he is not boasting he is proving a point) can be content or put his confidence in the flesh. It hit me hard because Paul was "circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee,". So basically he is saying that he, his whole life, has lived by the law, doing everything by the book. He has earned all these "titles" and he cant even put his confidence in what he does. He says "Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith". The reason this hit me so hard was that I sometimes think that I have done all these things but honestly I've done nothing compared to Paul and even he can't put his confidence in that. He says that he gives everything up in order to know the Lord. He says that righteousness does not come from anything that WE can do it only comes from the faith that comes through Christ.
as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless
Don't truly understand what Christ has done for me on the cross because if i did I would not continue to struggle with certain sins or constantly fall to certain desires. Not that i don't know what Christ did for me its that I dont always live as if I truly understand that what he did is the only way that i have new life now. My life should always reflect that. My favorite chapter out of the entire Bible is Isaiah 53, I canPierced for our transgressions. So what Jesus did for us (and i constantly have to remind myself of this) is he was CRUSHED in order for us to be seen as blameless.
So I learn this... God is sovereign, I cannot put confidence in my doings only in Christ and count everything as lost for the sake of Christ, and that the magnitude of what Jesus did for us can't be dulled down.
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