We have to form habits that express what God’s grace has done inside us. It isn’t a question of being saved from hell, but of being saved in order to reveal the life of the Son of God in our own lives. We know whether or not we are revealing his life when we come up against disagreeable things. When I meet with a task or a person I find unpleasant, what do I express? Is it the essential sweetness of the Son of God or the irritability of my self apart from him?
The only thing that allows us to enjoy the disagreeable is the bright enthusiasm of the life of the Son of God. If we get into the habit of saying, “Lord, I am delighted to obey you in this matter,” the Son of God will come to the forefront, and we will glorify him by revealing his life.
There must be no argument or debate. The moment we obey, the light of the Son of God shines through us. The moment we object, we grieve the Spirit. We must keep ourselves in good shape spiritually if we want the life of the Son to reveal itself, and we can’t keep in shape if we give in to self-pity. Our circumstances are opportunities for demonstrating how wonderfully perfect and extraordinarily pure the Son of God is. The thing that ought to make our hearts beat is a new way of revealing him. This doesn’t mean choosing the disagreeable; it means embracing the disagreeable when God places it in our path. Wherever God places us, he is sufficient.
Let the word of God be active and alive inside you, so that the life of Christ will reveal itself at every turn.
