God never calls us beyond humble obedience to something greater.
There will always be humble obedience before us. The choosing to die. The giving of self. The breaking of the will.
And only then there is life.
He never calls us beyond patience, humility, dying to self, kindness, righteousness.
He never calls us to places where we are the star and never again must die.
His way up is always down. The way closer to Christ is always death. Sanctification is always work.
And those great obediences? Those great things you long to do for Him? There's the apostle Paul, stoned and shipwrecked. There's John, alone in the aisle of Patmos. There's Corrie Ten Boom in a concentration camp. There's Jim Elliot floating dead in a river with an Auca spear thrust through him. There's Christ, hanging naked upon a cross.
The great obediences? These, our examples. These our patterns.
There will always be humble obedience before us. The choosing to die. The giving of self. The breaking of the will.
And only then there is life.
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