Ok, since I am moderating this I am going to go ahead and put my thoughts out there. I read the first two chapters on the drive back from TN last weekend. I don't know about you all, but I have really enjoyed it. It made me remember why I love this book so much. I can totally relate to Katy's feelings. I so remember the days of making resolutions and "trying" so hard to do the right thing. I first read this book when I was a teenager and I remember thinking, "I am so much like her." How many times do we tell ourselves that we aren't going to do "that" again...or this week I am going to pray harder and try and love God more? This was done not out of trying to win favor with God but with a heart of wanting to serve my Savior. I just didn't go about it the right way.
Resolutions are always met with personal failure...at least in my experience anyway. All that you are doing is trusting in the flesh....it's pride actually. Our pride is what spurs us to promise ourselves that We can do better. You might do better for a time, but usually it ends with feeling disappointed and discouraged with yourself. I love how The Complete Green letters puts it,
"To 'hope to be better' (hence acceptable) is to fail to see yourself in Christ only."
"To be discouraged is unbelief-as to God's purpose and plan of blessing for you."
"To be proud, is to be blind! For we have no standing before God in ourselves."
I love what Katy's mom said to her in chapter 1,
"'My dear Katy' She said. 'I wish I could make you see that God is just as willing, and just as able to sanctify, as He is to redeem us. It would save you so much weary disappointing work. But God has opened my eyes at last.'"
Beautiful...and so true! Maybe I am the only one out the who has and sometimes still does, struggle with feelings of disappointment in myself. It was not until God opened my eyes to the truth that I felt truly free. I no longer have to try!! I am free from the law, which says "do". God asks me to rest. To Know, Recon Yield...as in Romans 6, 7 and 8. To know the truth, to recon it to be truth and to yield myself to it. I am to allow God to do all the sanctifying work...cease striving. This is totally contrary to my nature. I want to work hard at it.
ok, so we believe that the only way to obtain salvation is through faith in Christ (faith alone in His finished work on the cross). So, why once we are saved do we think we have to "try" so hard to be good...try so hard to stop sinning? Just as we are justified by faith so also are we sanctified by faith.
Charles Trumbull said, " The effortless life is not the will-less life. We use our will to believe, to receive, but not to exhort effort in trying to accomplish what only God can do. Our hope for victory over sin is not 'Christ plus my efforts,' but 'Christ plus my receiving.' To receive victory from Him is to believe His Word that solely by His grace He is, this moment, freeing us from the dominion of sin. And to believe on Him in this way is to recognize that He is doing for us what we cannot do for ourselves."
If we are not fully acquainted with the workings of the cross and the crucifixion of our flesh, then it only makes sense that we could misunderstand and think that growth somehow comes from our own efforts. At that point the best we can do is confess our sin. confession "takes care of the penalty of the product, but not the source"(Miles Stanford.) We need to allow the Holy Spirit to get at the source before the sin is committed. The answer to our source of sin is death to self. Rom 6:11 "Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus."
I want to conclude my thoughts with another quote from "The Complete Green letters",
"Until the Christian is absolutely and scripturally sure of his standing, he is not going to do much standing."
In other words, unless we understand our position in Christ we will continue to feel disappointment with ourselves. Spiritual maturity is an often slow precess. But, thankfully God gives us the grace we don't deserve, but so desperately need to carry on.
Keep pressing on dear friends with your eyes fixed on the Savior!
"being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." Phil 1:16
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2 comments:
I love how Katy says "I am never happy except when every moment is occupied".
I'm like that sometimes. I feel like if I slow down, and have time to think about things, I'll be unhappy with my life... where God has me right now. It's easier to stay busy with serving, or just being with friends, than to have that quiet time.
Well, I got a slow start on this but now I am through chapter 15. I see why you like this book so much! What a candid journal Katy keeps. I have kept a journal on and off through the years, and have put some pretty revealing things in there, to be sure--but she doesn't hold back AT ALL. What I especially like so far is watching how she moves from a baby Christian into increasing levels of maturity, and how her life is an illustration of what seems to be a main concept of the author: that we are saved from hell by God's grace, and sanctification, including salvation from our selfishness, is also by God's grace and not by our own power. I also like how the book clearly states that while both redemtion and sanctification are by God's grace, redemption, ie., salvation from hell, occurs at a moment in time, whereas sanctification is a life-long process--a distinction that leads to Katy having complete assurance of her salvation during her near "deathbed" experience. For several years I didn't see that the bible makes this distinction, and I was quite scared that I couldn't be a true Christian because of my numerous and terrible faults and failings. Praise God that it really is His righteousness that makes us acceptable! Thanks for encouraging us to read this.
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