Come to Me . . . —Matthew 11:28*
God intends for us to live a well-rounded life in Christ Jesus, but there are times when that life is attacked from the outside. Then we tend to fall back into self-examination, a habit that we thought was gone. Self-awareness is the first thing that will upset the completeness of our life in God, and self-awareness continually produces a sense of struggling and turmoil in our lives. Self-awareness is not sin, and it can be produced by nervous emotions or by suddenly being dropped into a totally new set of circumstances. Yet it is never God’s will that we should be anything less than absolutely complete in Him. Anything that disturbs our rest in Him must be rectified at once, and it is not rectified by being ignored but only by coming to Jesus Christ. If we will come to Him, asking Him to produce Christ-awareness in us, He will always do it, until we fully learn to abide in Him.
Never allow anything that divides or destroys the oneness of your life with Christ to remain in your life without facing it. Beware of allowing the influence of your friends or your circumstances to divide your life. This only serves to sap your strength and slow your spiritual growth. Beware of anything that can split your oneness with Him, causing you to see yourself as separate from Him. Nothing is as important as staying right spiritually. And the only solution is a very simple one— “Come to Me . . . .” The intellectual, moral, and spiritual depth of our reality as a person is tested and measured by these words. Yet in every detail of our lives where we are found not to be real, we would rather dispute the findings than come to Jesus.
from My Utmost for His Highest
*Matthew 11:25-30: At that time Jesus answered and said, “I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight. All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him. Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
Okay, before anyone get’s caught up in wondering what the verse has to do with the passage, Chambers connects the two a little better for the Aug 20th devotional. This, by its self, is actually incomplete. Believe me, I’ve spent over an hour scratching my brain at this before I decided to peek a day ahead, and it all clicked. Get whatever you can out of it, but know it's okay if you're confused.
Here was my take, before I cheated:
I want to alter Chambers last sentence, to clarify what I understand it to mean:
“In every detail of our lives where we are found not to be real [in our faith], we would rather dispute the findings than come to Jesus.”
Self-awareness is not sin, and yet we can be so focused on some matter of our lives, or on introspection, that it serves as yet another separation from God. And yet, this is a stark reminder that our self-perceptions are often wrong. If we see ourselves as what we want ourselves to be or something we don’t like about ourselves, then we aren’t focused on seeing what God sees. But, when we realize this, ‘we would rather dispute the findings than come to Jesus.’
