Monday, December 9, 2019

My Utmost for His Highest - December 9 - The Offence of the Natural

And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. GALATIANS 5:24

The natural life is not sinful; we must be apostatized from sin, have nothing to do with sin in any shape or form. Sin belongs to hell and the devil; I, as a child of God, belong to heaven and God. It is not a question of giving up sin, but of giving up my right to myself, my natural independence and self-assertiveness, and this is where the battle has to be fought. It is the things that are right and noble and good from the natural stand point that keep us back from God’s best. To discern that natural virtues antagonize surrender to God, is to bring our soul into the centre of its greatest battle. Very few of us debate with the sordid and evil and wrong, but we do debate with the good. It is the good that hates the best, and the higher up you get in the scale of the natural virtues, the more intense is the opposition to Jesus Christ. “They that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh (Galatians 5:24)” — it is going to cost the natural in you everything, not something. Jesus said — If any man will be My disciple, “let him deny himself (Matthew 16:24)” i.e., his right to himself, and a man has to realize Who Jesus Christ is before he will do it. Beware of refusing to go to the funeral of your own independence.

The natural life is not spiritual, and it can only be made spiritual by sacrifice. If we do not resolutely sacrifice the natural, the supernatural can never become natural in us. There is no royal road there; each of us has it entirely in his own hands. It is not a question of praying, but of performing. From My Utmost for His Highest Classic Edition

My Thoughts
  • I must give up my right to myself - give up my natural independence and self-assertiveness - THIS is where they battle is fought.
  • I must move from good to best. Things are right, noble,, good - naturally. God's ways are best. 
  • Our main opposition in life is not with doing sordid, evil, or wrong practices - but instead we debate with doing what is simply good. But, good hates the best. 
  • The flesh is natural man and natural man has good ambitions - this is his independence. 
    • It is interesting, but growing up we talk of being independent as being something good that we aspire to in life. Yet, independence is in opposition to God. 

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