It’s All About God, Not Us …
- CFDevotional -
In the devotional series, Fight Like a Girl, Lisa Bevere said, “Adam and Eve were not the image of God, they were made in the image of God … they reflected God {like a mirror}. To be a reflection means that you can not initiate something, only mimic. We are reflections of Christ. “He has to initiate Himself in us, not ourselves initiating our Christ-likeness within ourselves.” This statement is so wonderfully full of the New Covenant promise that is so easily forgotten. I believe it is because of our soul longing for the deeper things of God, while our humanity tries to tag along.
It is in this refreshing reminder that I can once again come back to the place at the Cross, where I can go simply as I am, with all of my human tendencies and natures; that I don’t have to do the work, and moreover, God doesn’t want me to do the work. He Himself wants to do the work inside me that produces the fruit of His glory in my life. It is in this moment, that I again remember that I don’t have to try to be like God. That is not what God intends for us. Instead, truly, our goal is to surrender ourselves and allow God to initiate Himself – His thoughts, actions, and deeds within us. I believe it is in this moment of complete submission, that we become the reflection of Christ. It is here where others see past us, and can begin to see and hear Christ instead. So let us, once again, go to the Cross and lay down our all in full submission, yielding every part of ourselves to the Lord.
Father, I thank You for dying on the Cross, so that we may have life abundantly through You. Thank You for the gentle reminder that it is truly about You having Your way in and through our lives. Help us to remember that we do not need take control, but rather to surrender, and in so doing, reflect Your majestic glory. Thank You for this day, and for Your grace and mercy that is new every day. In Jesus’ name, AMEN.
Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard,
and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you.
Philippians 4:9
REFLECTION
The believer is most satisfied when he is most glorifying God with his life. Through his faith, God’s grace works in his life to do good. Daily he is being conformed to the image and quality of the God he serves. Recognize, O Christian, whom God has made you, and do well according this truth. And peace will be yours! So says the Word of the Lord …
“But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer,
he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:
For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way,
and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.
But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and
continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer,
but a doer of the work, this man shall be
blessed in his deed.”
~ James 1:22-25 ~
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