The Divine Rules of Life

This is from Oswald Chambers' "My Utmost for His Highest"

"Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect." Matt 5:48 NIV

Our Lord's exhortation in these verses is to be generous in our behavior to all men. In the spiritual life beware of walking according to natural affinities. Everyone has natural affinities; some people we like and others we do not like. We must never let those likes and dislikes rule in our Christian life. "If we walk in the light as God is in the light," God will give us communion with people for whom we have no natural affinity.

The example Our Lord gives us is not that of a good man, or even of a good Christian, but of God himself. "Be ye therefore perfect even as your Father in heaven is perfect," show to the other man what God has shown to you; God will give us ample opportunities in actual life to prove whether we are perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect. To be a disciple means that we deliberately identify ourselves with God's interests in other people. "That ye love one another; as I have loved you..."

The expression of Christian character is not good doing, but God-likeness. If the Spirit of God has transformed you within, you will exhibit Divine characteristics in your life, not good human characteristics. God's life in us expresses itself as God's life, not as human life trying to be godly. The secret of a Christian is that the supernatural is made natural in him by the grace of God, and the experience of this works out in the practical details of life, not in times of communion with God. When we come in contact with things that create a buzz, we find to our amazement that we have power to keep wonderfully poised in the center of it all.

I have been going through some stressful situations with people whom I love, but don't really like very much at the moment. I was praying about it, and then read this. God is so faithful to remind me how He expects me to act, and what he finds acceptable. I was instantly convicted by the Holy Spirit. I felt it was appropriate to share this, I hope it is helpful to you as well.

If you would like to know more about Jesus, please click on one of the church links on this page. If you need prayer or would like someone to talk with, contact me directly; rlwhitener@gmail.com Please include "prayer request" in the subject line.

Thanks for following along.
God Bless