As a babe in Christ, one of the first areas God had to deal with me about was PRIDE. I was extremely prideful. Since I had never met anyone I could depend upon, it was me, myself and I....against the world. To keep this article real, I must confess that this strategy worked well for me….for a while at least. I had to take care of ME. I had to work hard. I had to plan for MY future. I had to….I had to….I had to.
And then I run into God, who had already planned my future. I continued on my path of self-sufficiency for many years, but I did the religious thing of giving credit to God, when in fact, I was still working hard to make it happen. And make it happen, I did. In fact, my niece calls me, "The make it happen girl." While this might seem ideal for some others with different personalities, there are many drawbacks, both personally and spiritually. On a personal level, I became a magnet for the needy and dependent. And I was so accustomed to having people like this around me, that their neediness and dependency didn’t even bother me until I saw the pride of self sufficiency within myself.
However, the negative impact spiritually was far worse than anything personally. With God, I had to learn to become needy and dependent….foreign concepts for me, but remember, He had already planned my future. Part of His plan was to wait until I was in a position where I couldn’t help myself. He allowed me to run into a mountain so big, I couldn’t move it. I was at the end of myself and "The make it happen girl", couldn’t make it happen any longer. In retrospect, this was the only way he could have dealt with me, because if there was any small opening for self, I bulldozed my way ahead.
I had to learn that when it comes to the things of God, so much has to just be accepted. You can’t work for it, you can't earn it, you can’t plan for it, and you definitely can’t control it. You must simply accept it. The truth is, I could never work for and earn my right to salvation. I simply accept that I am saved. I don’t have a righteous bone in my body, but I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus (Phil 3:9). And let’s not even mention my being holy (LOL). Yet, I serve a Holy God, and I’m created in his image; therefore, I am holy. I spoke these words over my life for years, and for many of those years, my lifestyle was in direct contradiction. But I kept speaking the words of life over my life. I accepted the fact that God had already done the impossible…that which I would never be able to do. Eventually, my lifestyle began to reflect what I had simply accepted (and spoke) as truth-until the manifestation of that truth was evident.
You, too, have been accepted by the Beloved (Eph 1:6), so accept (and speak) all He has said about you until the manifestations are evident in your life too.
Posted By: Cheri Thompson
Sunday, August 9th 2009 at 8:32AM
You can also
click
here to view all posts by this author...
