May 31

“All the dealings of God with the soul of the believer are in order to bring it into oneness with himself that the prayer of our Lord may be fulfilled....Everything in the Christian life leads up to this perfect union.  The Lord has made us for it, and until we have intelligently apprehended it and voluntarily consented to embrace it, the travail of His soul for us is not satisfied, nor have our hearts found their destined and real rest.”  Hannah Whitall Smith, God is Enough, 5/31

It’s pretty amazing to me to look through the window of my life and see that everything that has happened thus far and everything yet to come is meant to fulfill Christ’s prayer for me and that the reason it hasn’t is because I’ve not consented to embrace this truth.  I can think of all the things in my life that I’ve not accepted because I believed that they weren’t meant to happen.  What I also realize is that I had no power over these things--they happened despite my best efforts to prevent them.  Sometimes I had no advance warning so there was absolutely nothing I could have done.  By not accepting them, however, I’ve only caused myself to focus even more on myself--whether it’s self-pity or by trying to compensate in some way for my loss.  This is such a waste of a life.  Lord, I accept Your Hand on my life.  May I feel Your touch in everything that happens.

“But Jesus came and touched them, saying, ‘Rise, and have no fear.’ And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only.”  Matthew 17:7, 8