March 16

“Our Lord could say with the psalmist David, ‘I delight to do thy will, O my God’ (Ps. 40:8), because he was dead to everything that was contrary to His Father’s will.  Until our affections are similarly so set on the will of God as to delight in it, we have not ‘taken up the cross’ (Matt. 16:24) in the Scripture sense at all.”  Hannah Whitall Smith, God is Enough, 3/16

Hannah illustrates this with how a child becomes “dead” to the things of her childhood and no longer finds pleasure in them.  I can attest to this.  I was eager to grow up and take on adult responsibilities.  But why do some young adults drag their feet into adulthood?  Why do they set their affections on things in the past instead of what lies ahead?  Becoming an adult brings greater responsibilities but it also brings greater freedoms.  Perhaps this is what I really longed for--the freedom.  I did not have a comfortable childhood like so many of today’s children have, so I looked forward to the day that I would be free from being under the control of parents who could not even manage their own lives properly.  This is why when I still did not find the freedom I longed for I was diligent in my spiritual search when I learned that true freedom was only found in Christ.  I can see now why children should not be given freedom without responsibilities.  They will never want to grow up--not in the worldly sense nor in the spiritual sense.  Freedom in Christ brings the responsibility of never leaving God’s will.

“For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love be servants of one another.  For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’.”  Galatians 5:13, 14