I had an amazing day yesterday...everything because this has been my practice for a few months. I had an amazing day in spite of the enemy trying to permeate and steal the joy from the situation because I was prayed up. I know my heart, I know my intentions and I know whose I am. I can call out my character defects and I recognize how the whispers of the enemy speaks to my defects because God is first in my life. I don't have to lean to my own understanding and have my usual knee-jerk, over the top emotional response.
Saying all that to say...one of the devotionals that I read daily is Oswald Chamber's My Utmost for His Highest; this is my third or fourth time reading it but each time I do I discover something new because I am in a different place in my life each time I do. Today's reading resonated in my spirit.
Read the section I've placed in bold text and ask yourself..... Do I allow the word to enter my heart or do I compromise it based on my experience? How do my experiences and fears limit my vision and purpose of God in my life?
Where then do You get that living water? —John 4:11
“The well is deep” — and even a great deal deeper than the
Samaritan woman knew! (John 4:11).
Think of the depths of human nature and human life; think of the depth of the
“wells” in you. Have you been limiting, or impoverishing, the ministry of Jesus
to the point that He is unable to work in your life? Suppose that you have a
deep “well” of hurt and trouble inside your heart, and Jesus comes and says to
you, “Let not your heart be troubled…” (John 14:1).
Would your response be to shrug your shoulders and say, “But, Lord, the well is
too deep, and even You can’t draw up quietness and comfort out of it.”
Actually, that is correct. Jesus doesn't bring anything up from the wells of
human nature— He brings them down from above. We limit the Holy One of Israel
by remembering only what we have allowed Him to do for us in the past, and also
by saying, “Of course, I cannot expect God to do this particular thing.” The
thing that approaches the very limits of His power is the very thing we as
disciples of Jesus ought to believe He will do. We impoverish and weaken His
ministry in us the moment we forget He is almighty. The impoverishment is in
us, not in Him. We will come to Jesus for Him to be our comforter or our
sympathizer, but we refrain from approaching Him as our Almighty God.
The reason some of us are such poor examples of Christianity
is that we have failed to recognize that Christ is almighty. We have Christian
attributes and experiences, but there is no abandonment or surrender to Jesus
Christ. When we get into difficult circumstances, we impoverish His ministry by
saying, “Of course, He can’t do anything about this.” We struggle to reach the
bottom of our own well, trying to get water for ourselves. Beware of sitting
back, and saying, “It can’t be done.” You will know it can be done if you will
look to Jesus. The well of your incompleteness runs deep, but make the effort
to look away from yourself and to look toward Him.
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