"Crucified With Christ"
“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me." -Galatians 2:20 Recalling the great hymn of old, written by Fanny J. Crosby, "To God be the glory, great things He hath done; So loved He the world that He gave us His Son, Who yielded His life an atonement for sin, And opened the life-gate that all may go in." ; Has unveiled the precise words to adequately describe my heartfelt joy in what my Lord has done in my life. Under the realization that many people are under the impression that dying to self is something repulsive and absurd, I have come unto a deeper more meaningful awareness as to what dying to self really is. When substantial sufferings frequently take their usually unwelcome place in our lives, we tend to thirst for sweeter waters. Through the divine sovereignty of God, He allows sufferings to take their vital positions in our lives, not to leave us broken and hopeless, but to bring us to a point of brokeness thirsting for hope. "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope."-Jer. 29:11. So we can see it is not God's will that we suffer for mere futility, but to refine us and mold us back into His image and likeness. Stumbling upon the realization, "God I need You!", opens the door of our aching hearts, so that God may come in and wash away our sorrows with His divine nature and fashion within us a reliance upon His heart and will for our lives. This breaking point in our lives will develop a sincere passion within us to die to self and live to God! I once wrote in one of my poems, "Restoration comes only from that which has been broken." This stands true to the fact that as God is the Potter and we are the clay, He will continue to break , crush, and grind us until we truly become so pliable and moldable that He can effectively shape and form us into glorious vessels in alliance to His perfect will. When we finally come unto this point in our lives, then and only then can God begin to reveal Himself to us in ways we've never experienced before. You see God desires to be the very center of our lives, but this cannot occur when we have not died to self and as we continue in the unfruitfulness of our sinful flesh. Paul wrote, "For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would."-Gal. 5:17. When our sinful flesh has not been crucified with Christ, the very Spirit of God within us cannot abound and refine our character to serve God with a pure heart. Likewise, God cannot serve us with all of His heart when we are not dead to our own self will. God's will is always contrary to self will, the two are not comparable. God's will for our lives is the only beneficial resource for an abundant life, full of unspeakable joy! We fight and we fuss within ourselves to obtain complete and astounding contentment, yet we fail to realize that this world and all therein, will never, ever fulfill the void within our nature that only God Himself can fill. For when we can victoriously set our self-will and selfish ambitions aside, we make ample room for God to come and make His abode within us. Therefore He is able through our denial of self to spring up a well of life within us that will produce and quench our every need. Until we come to this point in our life as believers, we will remain in the barren wasteland of wondering, "What is in this for me, God?" , when God is asking US/ "What will you now do for me, after all I have already done for you?" You see, living in the flesh, we seek out our own desires and lusts, and grieve the very existence of God in our lives that He cannot unveil Himself to us as He greatly desires! Therefore we continue to stumble upon disappointment after disappointment, not realizing these disappointments are God's appointments to revive us from reliance upon self and come into alliance with the one true and living God! God wants to bring us to the point, when trials come our way and present themselves an apparent threat , to fall upon our knees and cry out to Him, "Abba, Father, I am distressed, please come , rescue me and lead me through this peril!" Then we wait patiently upon Him to work in His perfect timing, it is then upon our patience and trust in Him that He is pleased and glorified by our hearts dependence upon Him and fleeing from our futile independence. Humble yourselves before the Lord and He shall lift you up! With man it is impossible, but with God all things are possible! I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me! But the salvation of the righteous is of the Lord: He is their strength in the time of trouble! God loves you and wants to make Himself very known to you, but you must first die to your self before He can illuminate your life with all the fullness of His glory! "Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross. and follow Me."-Mark 8:34. We must bear our cross daily, and realize to experience the fullness of God in our lives, we must be willing to suffer as He suffered, then will His miraculous presence fill us. When we daily fall into His hands and relish the love only He can give, then we will taste and see that the Lord He is good! Then we will find that dying to self and living unto the Lord is the perfect essence of the perfect love we have been searching for all our lives! G.D. Watson (1845-1923) once wrote this beautifully put phrase of dying to self, flit is your daily cross that makes you weep more than any other thing that sends you to frequent prayer; that leads you to ransack the promises; that makes you cry out, like Jesus, "Father, why is this?" that causes you to put both arms around the neck of your Saviour in yearning love; that makes you sick of earth and self; that gives you wistful longings for heaven-Oh, precious old homely, daily cross, what deep, tender, far-reaching effects thou hast wrought through all these prayer-paved years!" Truly it is a substantial blessing and commodity, this cross we must bear in order to have a fulfilling life in Christ Jesus, for by being buried in the likeness of His death, we will surely be raised in the likeness of His resurrection. We will find ourselves entering a whole new realm of life on this earth, as we come to find that heaven can be a place on earth as we die to self and live unto a risen, glorious Saviour! Jeffrey B. Quante IV; July 27,2000