On any given news report, in any newspaper, people are demanding their rights. Divorce settlements, constitutional amendments, even when arrested and put in prison. Even if you sat in the middle of a crowded room and listened to folks talk, you’d hear it said: l have the right to know. You have no right to say that to me. I do have rights you know.
What rights do you have? For Christians, rights are not ours to hold. We simply have none. What we cling to must be relinquished, if not physically, then emotionally, mentally and spiritually.
“Then Jesus said to His disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” Matthew 16:24
“We are apt to imagine that the cross we have to carry means the ordinary troubles and trials of life, but we must have these whether we are Christians or not. Neither is our cross suffering for conscience sake. Our cross is something that comes only with the peculiar relationship of a disciple to Jesus Christ; it is the evidence that we have denied our right to ourselves.” Oswald Chambers
What is that evidence in your life?
Selah, pause and think on this. Seriously. Do you know anyone who shows evidence of having denied the right to himself? A person living in such a way that he or she lives for Christ only. They take no offense when wronged? They rejoice in the difficulties of life. They praise God anyway? They walk the second mile and turn the other cheek and stand at the end of the line? And they do so willingly, without complaint or defense?
“It is not only that we give up our right to ourselves to Jesus Christ, but that determinedly we relate ourselves to life so that we may be appealed to only by the things that appeal to Him, and do in the world only the things with which He is associated.” Oswald Chambers
Surrendering our way to God’s way is not easy because we want our way. We want to do things our way and then have God bless that way.
What right are you holding onto today? What do you think you have every right to feel? to think? to say? Will you give it up and turn it over to Jesus? Or will you say, I’ve been mistreated, wrongly condemned, accused, stepped on; and I have every right to defend myself, take a stand and seek retribution?
When we take up our cross we must also carry it to the site on which our Savior was crucified. We must lie down and be nailed to that cross and surrender our body, mind, soul and spirit in obedience. Just as He. Help us yield to Thee, O gracious Lord, our Sufficiency. selahV
[copyrighted, 11/2008, SelahVToday, hariette petersen]
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