My Utmost: February 8
February 8, 2009
February 8th is my birthday, and though I’m not one to get all jazzed up about special days, this one deserves special attention not for me, but as a celebration of what my Mom endured to bring me into the world on this day (Thank you Mom)… and also because it “just so happens” to be the date of maybe the most important single page in Oswald Chamber’s My Utmost for His Highest, which — if you know me — is in my opinion the most God anointed writing of the modern era. If you search Utmost on my site you’ll find a larger post about the book, but I encourage you to go to Utmost.org and read the book for yourself, free online. For your consumption, here is the post for February 8:
The Cost of SanctificationMay the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely . . . —1 Thessalonians 5:23When we pray, asking God to sanctify us, are we prepared to measure up to what that really means? We take the word sanctification much too lightly. Are we prepared to pay the cost of sanctification? The cost will be a deep restriction of all our earthly concerns, and an extensive cultivation of all our godly concerns. Sanctification means to be intensely focused on God’s point of view. It means to secure and to keep all the strength of our body, soul, and spirit for God’s purpose alone. Are we really prepared for God to perform in us everything for which He separated us? And after He has done His work, are we then prepared to separate ourselves to God just as Jesus did? “For their sakes I sanctify Myself . . .” ( John 17:19 ). The reason some of us have not entered into the experience of sanctification is that we have not realized the meaning of sanctification from God’s perspective. Sanctification means being made one with Jesus so that the nature that controlled Him will control us. Are we really prepared for what that will cost? It will cost absolutely everything in us which is not of God.
Are we prepared to be caught up into the full meaning of Paul’s prayer in this verse? Are we prepared to say, “Lord, make me, a sinner saved by grace, as holy as You can”? Jesus prayed that we might be one with Him, just as He is one with the Father (see John 17:21-23 ). The resounding evidence of the Holy Spirit in a person’s life is the unmistakable family likeness to Jesus Christ, and the freedom from everything which is not like Him. Are we prepared to set ourselves apart for the Holy Spirit’s work in us? ~Oswald Chambers
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I hope that you had a fabulous birthday! I think that the God who has numbered every hair on our heads and knows all of the days assigned to us before one of them comes to be, delights in our birthdays. Just as we love to celebrate the birth our children, I think He revels in the remembrance of ours. And how like Him to give you such a relevant devotional that speaks so meaningfully to you for your special day. He’s just awesome that way! Many blessings!