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< Back to Strength for Your Spirit
Not of This World Living in this world but not being of it. WOW! That’s a tall order.
I am learning as I walk in Christ’s amazing grace that I am to walk in His abundance and not the abundance of this world. I am learning that by choosing to live fully in Him, I am walking securely on paths of righteousness. Not my own self-righteousness, but His righteousness. That still small voice that urges me to dig deep into His heart and to live for Him and His ways. To deny self and live abundantly in His truth. To live ‘not of this world’.
I am reading this amazing little book. It’s a classic. I don’t know why it has taken me so long to discover. But it has come at just the right time. I am not even a third of the way into the book, and yet the gems I am unearthing in the text ares transforming me and encouraging me and helping me to wage a battle against self and clothe myself in the Armor of the Lord. The story is of Much-Afraid and her journey to High Places. She is being led by The Shepherd, who promises to never leave or forsake her. Sound familiar?
I was taken breathless by her questions about the wild flowers that grow for no one to enjoy. I have often wondered the same. Why does beauty occur where no one can appreciate it? I wonder, did the Lord create hidden beauty to balance out the sin and pain he bears witness to each moment?
So, as I am taken breathless by her wondering about wildflowers, I am rendered speechless by The Shepherd’s response…
“I must tell you a great truth, Much-Afraid, which only the few understand. All the fairest beauties in the human soul, its greatest victories, and its most splendid achievements are always those which no one else knows anything about, or can only dimly guess at. Every inner response of the human heart to Love and every conquest over self-love is a new flower on the tree of Love.
“Many a quiet, ordinary, and hidden life, unknown to the world, is a veritable garden in which Love’s flowers and fruits have come to such perfection that it is a place of delight where the King of Love himself walks and rejoices with his friends. Some of my servants have indeed won great visible victories and are rightly loved and reverenced by other men, but always their greatest victories are like the wild flowers, those which no one knows about. Learn this lesson now, down here in the valley, Much-Afraid, and when you get to the steep places of the mountains it will comfort you.”Hinds Feet on High Places
We all wage a battle of self. Our victory is in Christ and following His will for our lives. They are silent victories to be shared between you and the Lord. The battles and the victories draw us closer to His heart. He delights in our obedience. He will fill us with His strength and endurance. He helps us to live not of this world, but of His kingdom.
Be drawn in by The Shepherd, Jesus Christ, who is our greatest champion and our ultimate comforter. He created us for LOVE. We are the flowers of His garden. Bloom in the goodness of the Lord, beloved.
Copyright © 2008-2015 Samantha Ewing
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