But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith . . . —Jude 20
There
was nothing of the nature of impulsive or thoughtless action about our Lord,
but only a calm strength that never got into a panic. Most of us develop our
Christianity along the lines of our own nature, not along the lines of God’s
nature. Impulsiveness is a trait of the natural life, and our Lord always
ignores it, because it hinders the development of the life of a disciple. Watch
how the Spirit of God gives a sense of restraint to impulsiveness, suddenly
bringing us a feeling of self-conscious foolishness, which makes us instantly
want to vindicate ourselves. Impulsiveness is all right in a child, but is
disastrous in a man or woman—an impulsive adult is always a spoiled person.
Impulsiveness needs to be trained into intuition through discipline.
Discipleship
is built entirely on the supernatural grace of God. Walking on water is easy to
someone with impulsive boldness, but walking on dry land as a disciple of Jesus
Christ is something altogether different. Peter walked on the water to go to
Jesus, but he “followed Him at a distance” on dry land (Mark 14:54).
We do not need the grace of God to withstand crises—human nature and pride are
sufficient for us to face the stress and strain magnificently. But it does
require the supernatural grace of God to live twenty-four hours of every day as
a saint, going through drudgery, and living an ordinary, unnoticed, and ignored
existence as a disciple of Jesus. It is ingrained in us that we have to do
exceptional things for God—but we do not. We have to be exceptional in the
ordinary things of life, and holy on the ordinary
streets, among ordinary people—and this is not learned in five minutes.
(Taken from Oswald Chambers – “My Utmost
for His Highest” October 21)