Pull Yourself Together

I have been in prayer over my children quite a bit lately. It seems like every day brings more to pray over. This is by far the hardest time in my life as far as my children go. I got to a point yesterday where I realized some of the mistakes I've made as a parent. This led to a lot of guilt. I dropped everything and prayed right there on the spot for forgiveness and help to make it right. I think my exact words were, "God, what do I do? How do I fix this?" It wasn't 5 minutes after I had prayed when the book, "My Utmost For His Highest" caught my eye. I began reading from the October 9 devotion. Here's what it said:

" 'Yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.' Romans 6:13-22. I cannot save and sanctify myself; I cannot atone for sin; I cannot redeem the world; I cannot make right what is wrong, pure what is impure, holy what is unholy. That is all the sovereign work of God. Have I faith in what Jesus Christ has done? He has made a perfect Atonement, am I in the habit of constantly realizing it? The great need is not to DO things, but to BELIEVE things. The Redemption of Christ is not an experience, it is the great act of God which He has performed through Christ, and I have to build my faith upon it. If I construct my faith on my experience, I produce that most unscriptural type, an isolated life, my eyes fixed on my own whiteness. Beware of the piety that has no pre-supposition in the Atonement of the Lord. It is of no use for anything but a sequestered life; it is useless to God and a nuisance to man. Measure every type of experience by our Lord Himself. We cannot do anything pleasing to God unless we deliberately build on the pre-supposition of the Atonement."

"The great need is not to DO things, but to BELIEVE things." This statement has begun to free me, not to do what I want, but rather to be obedient. My ultimate goal has always been the outcome rather than the obeying. However, this statement says to me, I am only responsible for the obeying, not the outcome. God alone is Sovereign, not me. I can't "fix" anything. I can only obey and trust God to work.

"We cannot do anything pleasing to God unless we deliberately build on the pre-supposition of the Atonement." Jesus' work on the cross did it all. Building on anything less than that is vanity and pride. It is pride that makes me feel guilty over the choices that my children are making, for it stems from a belief that I can change them - that I should be able to change their hearts. In reality, I can only trust my God to change them through Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit. This releases me to simply "trust and obey".