September 29

“Those souls who abandon the self-life and give themselves up to the Lord to be fully possessed by him do find that he takes possession of the inner springs of their being and works there to will and to do his good pleasure.”  Hannah Whitall Smith, Daily Secrets, 9/18

As I read Hannah’s words I suddenly envisioned what it means  “to be fully possessed by him”.  In that moment I understood that in order to be “possessed by him” one must have already abandoned the self-life.  I realized in that moment that what I’ve been trying to do is to “abandon” after being “possessed”. This is not faith.  I can see myself inching my way along a balance beam with my arm outstretched, reaching for God’s Hand. Faith would be to do a cartwheel on that balance beam!  This is why faith is absolutely necessary in order to be possessed.  No person in his or her right mind would abandon something that’s seemingly working for them.  That’s also why you see so many people not abandoning their self-life until they’ve hit rock bottom because it’s only then that it’s no longer working for them.  I wonder if it would make a difference if people understood that faith was actually courage.  Too often people think faith is the same thing as hope, as in wishing for something to happen.  What would happen if, instead, we saw faith as courage?  Then when we read in scripture that we’re to encourage others we would know that we are to help people have courage--courage in the Lord and His ability to meet our every need.

“So we are always of good courage; we know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight.  We are of good courage...2 Corinthians 5:6, 7a