Previous Challenge Entry (Level 3 - Advanced)
Topic: Escape (01/02/06)
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TITLE: Escaping Ourselves | Previous Challenge Entry
By Deline Tan
01/04/06 -
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Escaping God’s wrath or punishment could be one reason why Christians were not committed to Him. We rather do our own thing then yielded ourselves to God’s way because His way sometimes could be painful. Without His chastising and pruning we could never grow to become more like Him. It is more often than not that through situations and circumstances we discovered what God really wants from us, and we obeyed and gave in to His gentle correction. Not many of us would like to go through pains and struggles through His working which always call for repentance and corrections.
Escaping from God is never the answer. How could we ever grow to become more like Him if we are not fashioned to His dealing? God’s aim for us is to nurture us to become more like Him so that we can be a blessing to others. He saved us to be a witness to others. What He had done for us, likewise, He wanted us to help others too. To be a vessel for the Master’s use meant problems and difficulties, so that we could be conformed to become more like Him. The only way was to go through the valley with Him and allows Him to bring us up to the mountain top again.
Escaping from our problems by refusing to be dependant on God meant self-independence and refusing God’s help. When we do that we are telling God that we are smarter than Him. If we want to do things our way and try to be ‘god’ ourselves, we can never be pruned and guided to be like Him. Just as the Israelites refused God’s help in the wilderness, they all perished because they were not dependent on God. God wanted us to rely on Him so that our problems would not be bigger than who He is.
Escaping from the world of pain and struggling, we are not allowing God to direct and guide our pathways. Yielding to the will of God should be our ultimate goal. As we pleased Him in all our directions, He could draw His guidelines and pathways for us so that we could be useful vessels for His glory. He wanted us to be like His Son, ever dependant on Him and doing only what He is doing. John 5:19. With this attitude in mind, we could draw closer to Him and become more and more like Him. He wanted us to be one with Him as Jesus prayed before His departure from this earth. John 17:21.
Escaping from ourselves was never the solution. God’s way is our solution. We could never solve our own problems; only He could help us. We could only help ourselves if we call upon Him. He is our answer, not ourselves.
Escaping from life’s problems only indicated that we do not want to be like Jesus. It is only through facing life’s problems that we are saying, ‘We are not ESCAPING from God, but we are followers of Jesus Christ, conforming to become more and more like Him.
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