The most worthy goal

This week we received a video of a couple in their nineties dancing — fast jive with dips and twirls — for over two minutes. Inspiring, yes. A goal I want to set, not likely. If I were a few dozen years younger, I might. Dancing like that isn’t something to start now, with a pacemaker. It is good to have goals though.

Right now, I have a few. Declutter and simplify our home. Keep cooking interesting recipes. Exercise daily. Use up as much of my fabric stash as I can. Keep in touch with family, especially grandchildren. Pray often for all things. At the top of this ‘list’ is grow in faith and become more like Jesus.

Today’s devotional is about that goal. It begins by saying that truth about Christ should fill my heart, but more than that — Christ Himself must fill my heart — and it totally belongs to Him.

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:14–19)

Reading Jesus words make this seem impossible: “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5:48) This means spiritual maturity, being like Jesus using  all things to accomplish that purpose:

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. (Romans 8:28–29)

Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. (Hebrews 13:20–21)

Unlike dancing or my other goals, this one can be accomplished only by the power of Christ. Becoming like Him is by His working in me, not by me working on myself. When it seems that this purpose of God will never happen, I must remember that God is not done with me yet.

Also, when I groan with my slow progress, so does the whole world.

For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. (Romans 8:19–23)

Yet the deliverance and fullness of God’s goal will come. And this promise is my hope and assurance:

Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. (1 John 3:2–3)

PRAY: God, perfection seems impossible, yet You have the power to transform me and that perfection will come, and sooner rather than later as I get closer to the end of life here. In the meantime, I take all other goals to You in prayer and marvel at how You help me with progress in them. The assurance that spiritual perfection will also be mine gives me the encouragement and even the energy to keep at all that You have given me to do and more.

The capacity of a human soul

Nearly every day, Tozer says something in his devotional writing that startles me. His words may or may not be God’s ‘rhema’ for my day, but this quote has me shaking my head in amazement:

“Out of all God’s creatures, only the soul has a capacity large enough for [God] to empty . . .  the whole ground of his being into it. This He does in the act of giving birth to Himself spiritually in the soul.”

I’d already been thinking about the human heart as I began today by reading part of Exodus, the section where Pharaoh hardened his heart rather than letting the Israelites leave Egypt. Moses told this man what God wanted but he refused. After a few miraculous signs, Pharaoh still refused because God hardened his heart.

This made me think of the hard-hearted people I know. They hear the good news but push it away. The reasons vary, but the result is the same — a decreasing interest in Him and an increasing interest in the powers of darkness.

The good news is not difficult to understand, yet in its simplicity it becomes a puzzle and even bad news to those whose minds are closed to it. Jesus said it this way:

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” (John 3:16–18)

This is a black and white statement. If I believe in Jesus, I am not condemned. If I do not believe in Jesus, I am condemned already. Two choices, and as with choices before they are made, we are usually in one of them. For example, today I can go out or stay home, yet before I decide, I am already at home. In this case, without making any decision at all, the unbelieving person is in a dangerous place.

The amazing statement by Tozer puts awe in my heart. God created us so we have a soul that some say is God-shaped and only God can fill. The wonder is that a soul can be filled with all the fullness of God! Of course, the whole world cannot hold Him, but there is a sense that all of who God is becomes His gift to us when we believe in Jesus Christ.

Why is it so hard? Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, and moreover, I will not let Israel go.” (Exodus 5:2)

Was it difficult because Pharaoh did not know God? Did he fear great loss if he lost his slaves? Would he look bad in the sight of his people? He may have had these reasons, but the bottom line is that he did not know God or trust Him.

According to God’s Word, all unbelieving people are held in bondage by another ruler, the ‘prince of darkness’ who has the power to bind people in sin. This is the condemnation that Jesus spoke of for those who deny God and refuse to know and obey Him. This makes me sad, sad for those in darkness, sad that continual refusal could mean God will turn His back on them, even harden their already hard hearts so that they cannot believe. The Bible says that His mercy endures forever, but it also says unbelief condemns those who reject it.

^^^^^^^^

Jesus, faith in You brings all of who You are into my life. I cannot fully grasp the wonder of that right now because the sorrow I feel for those with hardened hearts is overwhelming. I know that You can do anything — nothing is too hard for You. May the power of Your everlasting mercy and grace change the determination of those who have set their jaws and their hearts against You.