Old Treasures on Tuesdays š
āTherefore let thoseā¦ entrust their souls to a faithful Creatorā¦ā (1 Peter 4:19, ESV).
āI entrust my spirit into your hand. Rescue me, Lord, for you are a faithful Godā (Ps. 31:5, NLT).
Can I be real with you? I want to share something personal that I believe will help you on your own journey into ever-increasing freedom. This morning, I was asking God to take me deeper into the realm of humility. This request was the prayer that rose up in me, in response to His conviction about an area where I still need to grow. He was showing me the propensity in me to seek glory for myself.
There was something new about this prayer, though. It was different from previous occasions when I asked Him to clean my heart of any self-glorifying tendencies. This time, a new faith rose up within me. I knew in my spirit that I was entrusting my soul to Him in that moment. At a very profound level of my being, I was giving over to Him, in absolute trust, the job of sanctifying me. There was such joy in being empowered to release this responsibility to Him!
Do you see the subtle difference? In the past, when I would become aware of the tendency towards pride innate in my sinful nature, I would feel the weight of it. I would pray about it, sincerely desiring to grow more into the image of Jesus. However, the prayer still had a vague sense of burden surrounding it. This time, however, I experienced the prayer in a burden-free way.
He empowered me to fully entrust my soul to Him. He reassured my heart that He has firmly committed to sanctify me through and through. You and I both ā we need our souls (mind, will, and emotions) to be transformed more and more and more. We need to be made more like our Savior. This is Holy Spiritās job. He has promised to do this job unswervingly. The more we take Him at His word, the more we will rest in this assurance. He who began the good work in us will be faithful to complete it until the day of Christ Jesus!
Holy Spirit is fiercely, passionately committed to His role of sanctifying you and me. When we pray about our perceived weaknesses, He wants to impart this strong confidence to our spirits. We can fully entrust our souls to our faithful Creator. Just as He created us, just as He began the breathtaking work of reproducing the beauty of Jesus in our lives, He will unfailingly finish the job.
āMay God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful and he will do itā (1 Thess. 5:23-24, NIV).
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How do we “work out our salvation with fear and trembling,” at the same time relying completely on God to do His sanctifying work in us? How do we engage with Him in this process?
Feeding On Jesus 
Good morning Jennifer, praying for you and your ministry, family, and our World š Thank you for all your posts and continued Word of God. Say hi to dad, the great man of God, well wishes to the family. Iām here in Florida, been painting condos. God bless you mucho, have a wonderful week, ur brother in Christ, chuck šš“
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Brother Chuck, it’s such a great joy to hear from you here on my blog! Truly, it makes my spirit extra blessed tonight, as I am checking into my account. Thank you so much for the love, greetings, and prayers, they are gratefully received. Grace upon grace and peace upon peace to you today!
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Thank you for this word today. I get what you are saying. I know for myself that I can’t possibly do anything for my own sanctification and actually wouldn’t even if I could. I would just mess it up if it were left to me. Furthermore if I am completely honest I wouldn’t have even chosen to on my own. Thanks be to Christ and the Father that I can trust him fully because I would be utterly lost otherwise.
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Thank you so much for sharing this, my sister! Your sincerity really blesses me. Truly we are utterly lost without His grace and it’s active agency in our lives, aren’t we?
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The problem with humility is that as soon as we notice it we lose it! š
The best illustration I ever heard is that humility is like a butterfly. Just let it flit around the flowers, but try to capture it or even look closely at it and it will fly away.
“Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it is thinking of yourself less.” (Rick Warren) True, whatever you think of the speaker.
ā¤ļø&š, c.a.
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I really like that illustration! What a perfect picture for the concept. Moses must have been SO advanced in his growth in humility, to be able to be used by the Holy Spirit to pen the words that he was the humblest man alive, without losing it!
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š I suspect a later biographer added this, such as Joshua, who probably recorded Moses death as well.
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Fascinating thought š§. Possibly, although, since God was dictating to the author what was written, it would not necessarily have been Moses bragging on his own humility, if he did write the words down that God was declaring.
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At this time of my life – a senior. this question rises yet again. I have written with the enabling of God the story of the search to find for myself God in His FULLNESS and deity. I truly care little about personal acclaim. This true story is about HIM. his miraculous intervention in my life BUT because it is my personal life the very telling of the story hopefully to encourage others, tends to point back to me. Surrendered to Him daily I must walk but continue to function as me in blogging and sharing. I pray SURRENDER is the key. Thank you and Blessings to ALL.
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There is such a lesson to learn, a life-long one it seems, where we are the city on the hill and we are supposed to let ourselves be seen, and always for the end goal of HIM alone receiving the glory!
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