08/07/2024
This morning we explore a life of personal holiness and the prayer which leads us to it. If we pray continually, and seek God's presence, then the natural and inevitable result will be our consecration and eventual holiness.
“let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.”
Hebrews 10:22 ESV
As I read Pastor E.M. Bounds this morning, he wrote these words concerning this subject:
"Consecration is much more than a life of so-called service. It is a life of personal holiness. It is that which brings spiritual power into the heart and brightens up the entire inner man. It is a life that always recognizes God, and a life given up to true prayer." – E. M. Bounds
Human relationships are built on love, respect, and being together. Our spiritual relationship with God isn't much different; we just use slightly different words. We find Him during the natural course of life and then develop a relationship through love, fear (or reverence), and prayer.
Our relationship with God is built on love but founded and cultivated on prayer; it is a reverent holding of His hand throughout life. Some think it is the overwhelming emotion of their conversion and fear they have lost it when that subsides and the day to day living in faith begins, but they are wrong. Our relationship is only beginning when the intensity of conversion gives way to our living and walking together.
Long ago I watched a rather unremarkable movie called Captain Corelli's Mandolin. The movie wasn't a Christian film or even marginally so, as a matter of fact it isn't suitable for young viewers, but as I watched the movie I heard something profound... An old Greek doctor was explaining love to his betrothed young daughter who was struggling with her feelings for a man who had recently come into her life. These were his words to her:
"Love is a temporary madness, it erupts like volcanoes and then subsides. And when it subsides, you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of promises of eternal passion, it is not the desire to mate every second minute of the day, it is not lying awake at night imagining that he is kissing every cranny of your body. No, don't blush, I am telling you some truths. That is just being "in love", which any fool can do. Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident." – Captain Corelli’s Mandolin
These words struck a chord with me. So often we try to take the falling in love with God and view it as the matured relationship that will last us our entire lives... There is more to our walk than that. It is not the exhilaration of conversion, it is the everyday act of living and growing together. Prayer matures us and brings us to a consecrated life and holiness. Sure there will be times when we will feel again the spark that started our fire of faith, but the depth of our togetherness is spent in the slow steady movement of our river of faith through much of its course.
Unlike the old doctor's description it is not an art or fortunate accident... It is God's divine plan, and our earthly lives and marriages should reflect this journey with Him. Bounds touched on this intertwining of roots with these words describing the Christian's inevitability of consecration...
"Full consecration is the highest type of Christian life... His praying naturally and involuntarily leads up to this one act." – E. M. Bounds
We seek God with all our heart and then when we think the fire is subsiding and that perhaps we have lost the brightness of His flame, we realize that what we are now experiencing is so much deeper and more fulfilling. We have passed the "falling in love" and entered into the "being in love" season of our relationship; and here is where we can live and grow together forever.
This morning I pray that your roots and God's are so intertwined that you can't conceive of them separating. I pray that if your relationship is in that place of doubt between the "falling into" and the "being in" love, that you will realize that there is so much more to be found and learned about God as you enter this new phase of your walk with Him. This is where the peace resides and the comfort in one another begins to gain depth; this is where prayer becomes much much more and love leaves the shallow exhilaration, and becomes something deeply rooted that lasts forever... I pray that in this slow deep stretch of your river of faith that God will fill you with His Holiness. Amen.
Prayer:
Father, thank you for the deep and abiding relationship we have with you after the first exciting days of believing have settled into the mature love that follows. Thank you for the lifelong walk with Jesus that leads us to a more perfect and lasting love for you, and which gives us rest in the faith we have in your Word as it draws our souls comfortably into it. Help us Father to remain firm in our belief and faithfulness in who you are so that after the infatuation in discovering what you are has faded we will continue to grow closer to you with each breath we take. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you our God who beckons us to come, and then leads us beside still waters, and makes us to lie down in the green pastures you have provided. You are merciful and full of grace Lord, and as you teach us righteousness, you perfect us in it. Although we once prayed excitedly and in wonder to you, we now pray quiet prayers that find rest in our expectation, and are comforted in the trust we have in you. Our prayers that once asked if you had heard us, and if you were there, having now given way to the calm certainty of your presence and promise. In you we trust, and in the maturity of our relationship with you we find great peace and solace. These are the days and seasons of our matured faith, and slow deliberate walks and conversations with you, and Jesus Christ. These are the days in which we realize that we love you with all our hearts, souls, minds, and strength without question... These are the moments in which we pray “come quickly Lord Jesus” without any doubt or fear of adverse judgement, because we abide in Jesus, and He in us… just as He abides in you, and you in Him. Praised be your name Father, now and forevermore. Amen!
Rich Forbes