Galatians 2:20 is a verse I have committed to memory. My desire is to be done with the "I" but how hard is it to live it 24x7 365 days a year being completely dead to myself and alive in Christ. How many times does the "I" try to rear its ugly head and steal my joy in Christ. So why do we even bother to die to ourselves? Why try to be a godly man or women? Why try to do what is right? Because He loved me and gave Himself on my behalf.
He gave Himself for me, a sinner, who hated Him and rebelled against Him. I owe Him everything because He laid down His life so I could live. I can't even comprehend it at times. It is just too much for me to understand His love, mercy and grace but I am so thankful for what He has done.
Below is one of the devotions from Oswald Chambers in his book "My Utmost for His Highest". I have found it a blessing today and wanted to share it. He convicts me of my attitude and my lack of utter gratefulness to my Lord and Savior at times. To many times the "I" comes out with what Wes wants.
Galatians 2:20 - For I have been crucified by Christ, yet I live, no longer I but Christ lives in me. And the life that I now live in the flesh I live by faith towards the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself on my behalf.
"The Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me." (Galatians 2:20)
We have to battle through our moods into absolute devotion to the Lord Jesus, to get out of the hole-and-corner business of our experience into abandoned devotion to Him. Think Who the New Testament says that Jesus Christ is, and then think of the despicable meanness of the miserable faith we have - I haven’t had this and that experience! Think what faith in Jesus Christ claims - that He can present us faultless before the throne of God, unutterably pure, absolutely rectified and profoundly justified. Stand in implicit adoring faith in Him, He is made unto us "wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption." How can we talk of making a sacrifice for the Son of God! Our salvation is from hell and perdition, and then we talk about making sacrifices!
We have to get out into faith in Jesus Christ continually; not a prayer meeting Jesus Christ, nor a book Jesus Christ, but the New Testament Jesus Christ, Who is God Incarnate, and Who ought to strike us to His feet as dead. Our faith must be in the One from Whom our experience springs. Jesus Christ wants our absolute abandon of devotion to Himself. We never can experience Jesus Christ, nor ever hold Him within the compass of our own hearts, but our faith must be built in strong emphatic confidence in Him.
It is along this line that we see the rugged impatience of the Holy Ghost against unbelief. All our fears are wicked, and we fear because we will not nourish ourselves in our faith. How can any one who is identified with Jesus Christ suffer from doubt or fear! It ought to be an absolute pæan of perfectly irrepressible, triumphant belief.
(Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, 235, 236)
Wes Porter
Galatians 2:20
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