"I must be a late bloomer," my husband said to me a couple months ago. He was referring to his recent revelation of the grace of God. You see, for most of his life, from the days of growing up in a Christian home through adulthood, he struggled with feeling like he didn't amount to much in God's kingdom. He strived but felt like a failure - inadequate and overpowered by sin. He understood being saved by grace, but didn't understand being kept by grace.
From the early days of our marriage I wondered at this. I would reason that maybe because I got saved as an adult and had such a complete turnaround, it was easier for me to understand that my growth was God's work in me and not my own. Determining last summer to truly "stand in the gap" for Aaron, one thing I prayed was that God would cause him to "(understand) the grace of God in truth." (Colossians 1:6) After some time we both started to see a difference. He would read Scripture he had probably read a thousand times before and see it in a new light. The Word was becoming alive to him!
Today my husband is delighting in sharing with me all the things God is showing him. I'm still praying though. To shrug off a spirit of bondage and walk in a spirit of liberty is a process. There's times when he's still tempted to think that he's responsible for keeping himself. Thank the Lord though for verses which remind him of the truth like John 6:44, where Jesus says, "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day," and Philippians 2:13, "For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure."
Next to the importance of understanding God's grace for a life of victory, is understanding our identity in Christ. Just yesterday I read The "Prone to Wander" Fallacy on Grace Roots and I just have to share it with you because it perfectly hits on this very thing! Please read it and then I hope you'll come back here and share your thoughts with me. Thanks!
I just read The 'Prone to Wander' Fallacy that you recommended and found it fascinating. The title caught my attention because I have often identified very closely with the lyrics to that hymn. How could it be a fallacy? Well, after trying to shoot holes in the writer's comments, I believe the writer is absolutely right: Christians are not prone to wander because we have a new nature in Christ! Our feelings of being prone to wander certainly do not make it a reality. I REALLY need to remember this the next time those lyrics come to mind during my prayer time of confession. Instead of 'prone to wander' being an excuse, I shall dismiss it as a mere 'feeling' and praise God that He has given me a new nature, one where He has given me victory over sin!
ReplyDeleteI'm right there with you! I used to just love that hymn - especially those particular lyrics because I really related to them. But thank the Lord He led me to see that I just can't depend on my feelings because they're not DEPENDABLE! No matter how far I seem to "wander" - it's only a feeling. The truth is that you and I are as close to Christ as we can possibly be because we are "seated with Him in the heavenly places" (Eph. 2:6). I can't help but think of Proverbs 3:5 - "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding..." So then, we must not put confidence in our feelings or our understanding, but completely rest on the truth of God's Word. A book that set me free in relation to this is the classic, "The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life" by Hannah Whitall Smith. Thanks RD for sharing your insightful comment.
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