STRENGTH FROM UNDERSTANDING AND ACCEPTING OUR POSITION

STRENGTH FROM UNDERSTANDING AND ACCEPTING OUR POSITION       2Corinthians 10:1-7; Galatians 5

  God is Creator, not I. God is Sustainer, not I. And the most difficult truth to understand and accept, God is Supreme Sovereign, not I.

  This is not to say that man through decision and active determination has no strength, for he does. But without understanding and accepting our position as His creation, our strength is ego-centric. As such we sooner or later discover how fragile our ego-centric self-reliance is.

  And as a friend often said in discussion of problem solving, “There be indicators.” (Rom.1:16-23)

  Independent of God, reliant on our own strength we’re slaves to bolstering our ego through various means; defensive denial, seeking and gaining recognition, possessions, status, aggressiveness, rivalry, selfish ambitions, control, arrogant rudeness et al. and thereby we suffer at the hand of God (Rom.8:8; Jam.4:6), self and our fellows (Lk.17:33; 1Cor.13:4-7; Jam.3:16).

  Reliant on Sovereign God we have strength that includes love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake has forgives. (Gal.5:22-23; Eph.4:32)

  King David, writer of many psalms, acknowledged and explained this truth well:

 O LORD, you have examined me, and you know me.

You alone know when I sit down and when I get up. You read my thoughts from far away.

You watch me when I travel and when I rest. You are familiar with all my ways.

Even before there is a single word on my tongue, you know all about it, LORD.

You are all around me-in front of me and in back of me. You lay your hand on me.

Such knowledge is beyond my grasp. It is so high I cannot reach it.

Where can I go to get away from your Spirit? Where can I run to get away from you?

If I go up to heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in hell, you are there.

If I climb upward on the rays of the morning sun or land on the most distant shore of the sea where the sun sets, even there your hand would guide me and your right hand would hold on to me.

If I say, "Let the darkness hide me and let the light around me turn into night," even the darkness is not too dark for you. Night is as bright as day. Darkness and light are the same to you.

You alone created my inner being. You knitted me together inside my mother. (GW 139:1-13)

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