Losing Your Life to Find It

"Whosoever seeks to save his live will lose it, and

whosoever loses his life for my sake will find it."

By kenedy Jagaji

These words of Jesus are familiar words. But like so many of

the familiar passages of the Bible, the real meaning often gets

lost in the familiarity. We can get so used to hearing a verse that

we become dull to what God is saying through it. To us, it is

what we have heard so many times before.

We dare not do this with this verse. Why? Because of it's

importance. Notice what is at stake here. Jesus is talking about

losing your life! He is talking about how to find true life in God. So

certainly, if we don't get this right, nothing else is going to be

right in our Christian life either. This verse is clearly talking about

the most important thing imaginable: Life in Christ. And it's

telling us how to either lose it or find it.

Jesus is stating, in this one sentence, a principle of the

kingdom of God which is so important that it might be said that it

is a governing principle. It is, in fact, a description of how creation

functions. Embodied in this one statement of Jesus is the

plan of salvation, the process of growth, and a revelation of what

the relationship between God and His church is supposed to be.

In this verse is the HOW and the WHY of these realities.

A Simple Equation

Jesus says, "If you want to find your life, then lose it. But if

you want to lose your life, then try to save it." If we put this down

as a simple equation, we get this:

Seek to SAVE your life = LOSE it.

LOSE your life in Christ = SAVE (i.e., find) it.

This is the opposite of how human nature thinks. We think

that to gain our lives we must save them. We think that if we

let go of our lives that we will surely lose them. This is natural

and understandable. But it is wrong.

To grasp WHY it is wrong, we must understand what Jesus

means by the terms He uses in the above passage. What does

Jesus mean when He says, "Lose your life?" What does He

mean when He says, "Seek to save your life?" And why does

doing each produce the opposite effect from what we expect?

Simply put, Jesus is talking about self-ownership. He is telling

us that we must lose our ownership of ourselves. We must lose

control of our lives. All of that must die. It must be uncondtionally

surrendered into the hands of God. If we do surrender, then we

will experience what real life in Christ is all about. We'll actually

experience resurrection in Jesus.

Jesus also says, "If you want to die, demand your life. Hold

back from unconditional surrender to God. Own yourself; decide

for yourself. Choose to determine the outcome of your life

through your own works and reasoning. And to it all very

religiously."

Now, don't make the mistake of thinking that Jesus is drawing

a contrast between the saved and sinners. He is not specifically

doing that at all in these verses. To the contrary, He is talking

to His people; to those whom He has already called. He is

saying, "I have called you for a purpose. You had nothing to do

with it. It was completely by My grace. But now that I have

called you, you must choose. You must choose to either

surrender yourself to Me, or hold onto yourself."

No one can unconditionally surrender to God unless they

believe Him. This is, therefore, a call for faith. But even that is

something God will grant us a measure of by His grace. Losing

one's life in Christ is therefore one of the easiest things possible

for us -- although our flesh will resist our choice. Yet we must do

it, both in the overall sense as a commitment to God, and on a

daily basis, as we carry our Cross behind Jesus Christ.

A Work of Grace

Never think that God has called us by His grace only to

leave everything else up to us afterwards. No. God calls us by

His grace and then works in us by His grace. Nothing is up to

us except one thing: Surrender. It is up to us to lose our life in

His purposes. It is up to us to take up our Cross.

HOW do we surrender? Surrender first takes place as an act

of will. When God brings us to the place where we see He wants

a surrender, we must first choose to believe and trust Him. Then

we must actually choose to unconditionally surrender our

lives to Him. We must say, "Into your hands do I commit my

spirit." And then, if we really mean what we have said, we must

obey accordingly. We must "work out" our surrender in whatever

form is necessary. The consequences of our surrender,

and of our obedience, we must then leave with God.

Losing to Find

Under normal circumstances, seeking to save one's life is not

wrong. It is natural and legitimate. But in this passage, Jesus

says that it is a sure way to LOSE. If I try to SAVE my life, Jesus

says, I'll end up losing it. Or, to put it another way, if I try to gain

my life, death will be the result.

The most obvious "life" to which Jesus is referring, the "life" we

are never to try to "save," or preserve, would be this temporal life.

We must never try to save or preserve our old man in Adam.

But that is only the beginning of what Jesus is talking about here.

Jesus is actually saying that we must never try to save or

preserve ANY of our life -- including even our life in Christ. We

must fully and unconditionally surrender ourselves to God. Total

abandonment to God is the only way to true life in Christ.

It may seem odd to suggest that we could try to "save" our life

in Christ.  Afterall, we only have life in Christ if we are already

saved. But what Jesus is warning against is the tendency for

Christians to try to control the outcome of their walk with Christ

through the efforts of religious flesh. He is telling us that if we

really belong to Him, we must relinquish even that into His hands.

All of us try to control the outcome of our spiritual lives. God

works in us along a particular line and we resist. We don't want

to die the death required to advance into freedom. We'd rather

try to accomplish "God's will" in our own way -- a more

comfortable and less costly way. And we always do it quite

religiously. Terribly religiously. In fact, some of us have even

used self-imposed suffering and humiliation to preserve

ourselves. Anything to avoid the real issue.

Of course we usually do this mostly in ignorance. The flesh

tends to have a natural reaction to defend itself against anything

which would violate it's territory. Often, we don't even need to

think about it. We throw our guard up against God and try to

avoid what He is doing. We mask ourselves in religious garb and

try to convince ourselves, and God, that we really do belong to

Him without strings attached.

Fortunately, God is never suprised or shocked by any of this.

He already knows we are going to do these things. He knows

what we are made of. Despite it all, God continues to invade us.

He continues to disturb us; stir up our complacency. He loves us

too much to allow us to be ill at ease. The Holy Spirit is

continually seeking access to us for the continuing work of grace

and redemption which Jesus Christ has won for us.

Ultimately, however, I must choose. I must choose to either

save my life, or lose it for Christ. I must do this in many "little"

ways each day. But then there will be the "big" ways -- those

crisis points in which I will either go on with God in a deeper way,

or regress to a point where God must start all over with me.

It is never too late to repent and surrender to God. There is

no sin I can commit, nor any bad choice which I can make which

is too deep for the Redemption of Jesus Christ and the full

forgiveness of God to reach. It is always always possible to turn

and say to God, "Into your hands I commit my spirit." It is never

too late to lose my life in Jesus Christ.

Ownership

"Losing my life for Jesus' sake" means exactly what the

phrase suggests: I must lose my life. This means that I don't

control it anymore. In fact, I no longer know where my life is, or

where it is going. Yet I trust the One who is leading. I trust the

One who is in control.

This issue is clearly a matter of OWNERSHIP. Who owns me?

Have I staked a claim of ownership upon any part of my

existance? Have I reserved for myself the right to have the final

word regarding anything about myself? Do I operate under the

spirit of self-owership? If I do, then I am seeking to SAVE my life

-- seeking to OWN my life. I am on the throne, at least partially.

I have set limits upon the access I will give to God.

When we think of examples of how we might seek to save

ourselves, or be our own boss, there are some which are quite

obvious. For instance, if I am trying to maintain myself with God

through my own works, I am obviously trying to save myself. I

may not call it that, or even bring salvation into my thinking. But

as long as my works are my basis for standing before God, I am

seeking to save myself. And the only result possible is that I will

LOSE my life.

This is exactly what happens, too. Ask anyone who has spent

years trying to live up to their self-imposed standards for

walking with Christ. They will likely tell you they are buried

underneath an avalanche of condemnation, fear, and guilt. This

is the only possible result of putting myself under such

self-imposed laws. I LOSE real life in Christ because I seek to

save myself through my own efforts.

Seeking to save or preserve my life always results in a fake,

soulish type of spirituality. It always results in religious flesh

governing my life. I may say the right spiritual things, and appear

to be a most spiritual and deep person. But underneath it all,

I have somewhere side-stepped the real Cross God had for me,

and opted for my own agenda. Yet we need not judge one

another in these matters. Our focus should be to present OUR

bodies, a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. Indeed,

this is what it means to "judge ourselves, that we be not judged."

A Dependent Nature

Anytime I decide to own myself, even along legitimate lines, I

will LOSE what I'm after. But this is not because God is going to

come down from heaven and punish me or something. It is

because that's the way it works -- it's as a "law." It's the way

things MUST work in the kingdom of God, because it's the only

way they CAN work.

Why? Because what we are talking about here has to do with

man's -- and God's -- fundamental nature. Man was

originally designed to be fully dependent upon God. God did not

make man with any capacity at all to be independent. Therefore,

when man declared his independence from God, he became

something contrary to the original nature God put in him. The

result was distortion of character, and a twisting of his real nature.

That is always what happens when a living creature begins to

operate out of the realm for which he is suited.

Man is not suited to save, control, own, or rule himself. He

can't do it. It produces death. Only if I surrender my self to God

without strings attached do I return to the NORM. And the norm

is LIFE -- now provided through a surrender to God through

His Son, Jesus Christ.

The greatest sin a Christian can commit is to seek to save

himself. Why? Because by doing so, I actually deny Jesus

Christ. I seek to salvage myself for my own ends. This is the

very essense of the sin of Adam! It is what God is delivering us

from. No wonder Jesus says that the end result is that I will

LOSE the very thing I seek to save through my own efforts!

Seek First the Kingdom

Jesus said to instead "Seek first the kingdom of God." That

means to live for the eternal. It means that rather than try to

salvage something out of this life for myself, and thus "save" my

life, I'll surrender it all to God. The result? I'll FIND real life. In

other words, I'll find Christ Himself. And along with Christ, I'll

have added to me all that is necessary to achieve God's

purposes in me. That too, is as "a law."

The issue again and again is one of OWNERSHIP. One of

HEADSHIP. Who is my God? Who runs my life? Not in theory,

or in a doctrinal sense, but really?

We find the issue of headship wonderfully illustrated in the

book of Revelation. There God illustrates this great principle in

the 20th chapter:

And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was

given unto them. And I saw the souls of them that were

beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the Word of God, and

which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither

had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands.

And they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years...on

such the second death has no power. (Rev. 20:4,6)

Notice what qualified these ones to reign with Christ: They

were "beheaded" for His sake. In other words, they had their

OWN HEADSHIP cut-off! God, in symbol form, is showing us

here this same Truth. He is telling us that if we want to reign and

rule with Christ, we cannot reign and rule ourselves. We must

LOSE all of that in order to find Him.

In the final analysis, the only way I can reign and rule with

Christ is if Christ first reigns and rules over me. There is simply

no other way I can be immune to "the second death." And there

is no other way I can experience what God has for me through

the resurrection.

Carrying Our Cross Daily

The instrument of death God offers us is our cross. Jesus

said, "If any man would be My disciple, he must pick up his cross

and follow Me." This is not a one time event. It is a continual

process. I am to walk through life carrying a cross.

This does not take away from the fact that, in Christ, I do die

all at once. It simply means that there is a process by which

His death must be worked out and made manifest. Through the

continual "losing of my life," it is worked out. And as His death

is made manifest in my life, so is His life. For if I will "lose my

life" for Jesus' sake, I will find it in Him. *

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The Path of Victory: Part 3

You Can Be Right Without Feeling Right!

Christ’s followers are alluded to as ‘soldiers’ (2 Tim. 2:3). So we should not be surprised when we find there are wars to fight. One of the great battles in the Christian life is coming to grips with the issue of our emotions, or feelings. The proper order in navigating the Calvary Road is: Fact, Faith, and Feeling. Too often God’s people reverse the order: Feeling, Faith, with Fact bringing up the rear. And the result is disastrous. The truth is you can “do right” even if you don’t “feel right!” The process of spiritual growth is simply replacing temporal appearances with eternal realities, and living it out. Yes, there are times when you don’t feel dead to sin, don’t look dead to sin, and maybe don’t act dead to sin. Many are the days when you look the same, think the same, and feel the same?but you know you are not the same. Your new nature is simply not at home with sin. You know you are not the same because the Word of God says so!
Years ago I watched a television documentary about a young man who had amnesia. He did know his name, his parents, or where he was born. He was clueless about his identity. A kind woman befriended him. Every weekend she would drive him to different parts of the country hoping he would see something that would trigger a memory. How sad to learn of this man who could not remember who he was. But how much sadder to find scores of Christians who have not forgotten—they have never known who they really are “in Christ!”
Our family signed up for a service to monitor those who would try to steal our identity. But stolen identity did not start with modern technology. It began long ago as Satan has worked at a fever pitch to prevent God’s people from discovering their identity in Christ.
You are not “in the flesh.” Something has happened to you that has moved you out of that realm. Paul made it crystal clear when he said, “Ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you” (Rom. 8:9). The center of your existence is no longer “in Adam” (flesh). Your reference point is “in Christ.” A believer cannot exist “in the flesh” because, “They that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts” (Gal. 5:24). Once you have been made a partaker of the divine nature you have gained a new identity.
You may not be “in the flesh,” but the flesh is still in you. And this is where the rub comes. Victory cannot mean the absence of conflict because Galatians says, “The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would” (5:17). Here is depicted the real life conflict which is so common to many of us.
Every person has a body, soul, and spirit. Your “soul” consists of mind, emotions, and will. It is through the soul that you interact with the world. Your “spirit” is the inner part of you with which you relate to God. It is possible for your feelings (soul) to be moving in one direction while your inner man (spirit) is centered on Christ. In other words, you can be right without feeling right. In the final analysis, you and I are either walking by faith or by sight. Faith is when a man determines a thing to be true even when it doesn’t seem to be true.
It is not necessary, or possible, to live in an emotional stratosphere all the time. Emotions come and emotions go, but “Jesus Christ” is “the same yesterday, today, and forever.” The facts of the gospel never vary regardless of our circumstances or the ever-changing culture which surrounds us.
The power once held by the “old man” has been broken. “Knowing this that our old man has been crucified” (rendered inoperative) (Rom. 6:6). Faith is the only way to please God. That means you can only relate to God on the basis of faith which is a function of your spirit. Nothing else counts. When God says our old man is crucified, then we must take that by faith regardless of our feelings. Once you see the truth, you must seize the truth, and then you will sense the truth. As we choose to place our faith in the fact, our feelings eventually catch up. The good news is you do right without feeling right because you are right by virtue of the Cross.

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The Path of Victory: Part 2

You must Choose to Lose your Life Daily

William Graham Scroggie said, “In some people’s lives Jesus is present; in other lives he is prominent; but still in other lives, He is preeminent. We all must allow Jesus to be preeminent in our lives.” Center stage can only be occupied by one person at a time. If Jesus is to be magnified in my heart, then my “flesh” must be mortified!
The Lord Jesus spoke directly to the issue of discipleship in Luke 9:23-24, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it. Following Jesus means cross-carrying self-denial, and this is a daily matter. The flesh is never satisfied; it must be crucified.
The judicial aspect of the Cross is completed. The price of redemption has been paid. Yet there remains the outworking of the Cross in practical life. To take up the Cross “daily” is an on-going process which means saying no to the flesh. Israel had to walk in obedience step by step with the Lord into the Promised Land. Before they could occupy there were many obstacles, enemies, and sinful tendencies to overcome. Even so, this earthly pilgrimage requires us to deal with sin, in the world, and in ourselves until we are with Him in glory. Walking in the Spirit does not eliminate temptation, but it does guarantee victory.
Spiritual growth is all about our condition catching up to our position. The gospel that we preach is not just a message containing historical facts, but something we experience and apply “daily.” Calvary is finished, but we aren’t! It is by dying that we live, and losing our lives is the way we find them. Just like salvation is centered on the cross, so is sanctification. “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me” (Gal. 2:20).
The Christian life is not our responsibility, but our response to His ability. Andrew Murray commented, “What a comfort to realize that God is ready to assume full responsibility for the life wholly yielded to him.”
On New Year’s Day in 1863, Abraham Lincoln spent hours poring over one of the most important documents in American history, the Emancipation Proclamation. When signed, this document would set every slave in America free. Lincoln signed the important document that day. However, in those days word traveled slowly, and in Texas some slaves did not hear of the Emancipation Proclamation until June 19 that same year. The slaves were legally freed on New Year’s Day, but they lived without knowledge of the freedom they had gained. Some slaves, even after they had heard of their freedom, did not accept it. They had been slaves all their lives and did not know where to go, what to do, or how to function independently. These former slaves were legally free, but practically bound. Officially, they were free, yet many were still dominated by their cruel, ruthless masters. Similarly, the Cross of the Lord Jesus Christ is the Christian’s emancipating proclamation. All Christians have been lawfully set free from the old cruel, ruthless master of sin, but practically they are still bound. By applying the Cross of Christ, we can be free from the old power that has mastered us.
Jim Elliot asked, “Are you prepared to give up all that you are so that you may receive all that He is?” If you want victory, you must choose to lose your life daily. Life is all about choices. Every day we can say “Yes” to Christ and “No” to sin.

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The Path of Victory: Part 1

 

Act on the Fact!

Are you repeatedly triumphant and rarely trounced in your spiritual life? Or, are you repeatedly trounced and rarely triumphant? If you are one who has found a consistent “abundant life” to be a bit elusive, but still believe it is possible, then this series of articles may be helpful to you. To enforce the full victory of Calvary we must understand and implement the entire gospel message. Freeman Tomlin wrote, “Jesus gave His life for us, and then took our old life from us, so that He could give His life to us, in order that He could live His life through us.” This wonderful sentence summarizes the concept of the full gospel. You must Act on the Fact! Romans chapter six repeats the proposition that we are “dead to sin” (vv. 2, 6, 7, 8, 11). This bold assertion is reiterated throughout the passage. The work of Christ on the Cross has broken the power of cancelled sin. Verses like the ones mentioned above clearly state that Christ’s finished work has dealt with the power of indwelling sin as well as the penalty. Effective faith is factbased, not feeling-based.
By virtue of our union with Him in His death, burial, and resurrection we are “freed from sin” (v. 7). We are told to account ourselves “to be dead indeed unto sin” (v. 11). This is not a trek into a spiritual fantasy land of make-believe. To the contrary, it is entering into the reality of all God has provided through Christ. You do not reckon yourself “dead” in order to become dead, you reckon yourself dead because you are dead! It is an accomplished fact that occurred when Christ was crucified. This is not something you have to do; it is something you must recognize.
Most of us are very familiar with the substitutionary side of Calvary in that Christ died for our sins. But the representative side of Calvary is little known. “Knowing this that our old man is crucified with him” (Rom. 6:6). You see, Jesus not only died for me, He died as me! His death was my death to sin in order that His life might be made manifest through my mortal flesh. And what is “victory” other than the victorious life of Jesus being made real in my experience? Ian Thomas put it this way, “The death of Jesus for you makes possible the life of Jesus in you.”
We all know about the Romans Road to salvation, but after we are saved we need to discover the Romans Road for the saint. That which is primary in redemption can never be secondary in sanctification. Watchman Nee, in his book, The Normal Christian Life, lays out the important principles, Know?Reckon?Yield, found in Romans chapter six. “Know” has to do with the fact of our co-crucifixion with Christ, while “reckon” and “yield” are actions that the believer takes to live above sin. The term “reckon” is an accounting term which means “to account it to be so.” The fact (knowing) when followed by faith (reckoning) leads to filling (yielding). Only the fullness of God can meet the deep needs of the human heart. The old hymn sums it up:
Dying with Jesus, His death reckoned mine,
Living with Jesus, a new life divine.
Looking to Jesus till glory doth shine
Moment by moment, oh Lord, I am thine.
When the Bible speaks of being dead to sin and alive to God we must “side with” God instead of “walking by sight.” We must operate like a thing is so even when it seems it is not so, in order for it to be so. “Faith is the evidence of things not seen.” Your besetting sin, whatever it may be, was dealt with by God at the Cross. Your liberation is a completed reality. Your part is simply to act on the fact that through Christ you are indeed dead to sin. The path to victory is not a secret which only a select few can ever embrace. It is stated clear as crystal in the Scripture. This Christ centered, cross-centered corridor is the only way to conquer the bondage of sin. Stay tuned for Part 2; You Must Choose to Lose your Life Daily.

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A Season of Heaviness

Life is all about seasons. Ecclesiastes Chapter 3 tells us there is a “season” (appointed occasion) for everything—“A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance…A time to get, and a time to lose…A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.” 
It seems that countless believers are facing crushing crises. Problems within and without pile on during these horrible seasons. The unraveling of American culture has contributed to massive amounts of depression. "Thinking people" are grieving the inevitable. You see people become afraid because of what "might" happen, but people get depressed because of what "has" happened. Melancholy is the result of losing something; be it a relationship, riches, or reputation. Losing a loved one involves a grieving process which can bring concentrated pain. The Bible talks about the "sting of death." Many have experienced an intense aching in their heart in the wake of death. Life's losses often usher in a "season of heaviness."
Difficulties in your family, finances, fellowship, or physical well-being can also bring about anguish of soul. The physical (your body) affects the mental, emotional, and the spiritual dimensions of life, and vice versa. Everything is connected. Problems in one area tend to impact the other facets of life.
Exhaustion also has a way of skewing one's perspective. Depletion can lead to depression which tends to accentuate depravity. Have you discovered that physical and emotional fatigue weakens your resilience? But there are also times when an inner pain is present even though there seems to be no apparent reason for the "season of heaviness." Anxiety has gripped the best of saints at one time or another. A friend related how he found himself depressed for the first time in his seventy-three years of living. I said, "If this is your first visit from this unwelcomed guest, you should be turning spiritual cartwheels!"
Perhaps you find yourself in a period of great difficulty. If you feel distressed, you are not alone. It is during these “hard times” that we must see the larger canvas.

“Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ” (1 Pet. 1:6-7).

The various trials of life bring these periods of overwhelming grief. Scores are enduring a season of testing. Verses like these from 1 Peter offer needed insight to negotiate our way through the dim and dark valleys of life.

1. Seasons come and seasons go. Nothing is permanent. Nothing on earth comes to stay—eventually it comes TO PASS. Your season will change.
2. “Heaviness”, or grief, accompanies trials and testings. Living can take the life right out of you. No one is immune from these tests. Elijah reached a point of despair where death seemed preferable. John the Baptist questioned the validity of Christ’s Messiah-ship as well as his own ministry. Paul despaired of life. One of the Puritans noted that sin turned Paradise into a briar patch and no one gets through it without being scratched. Life in a fallen world includes all sorts of trials.
3. The purifying of your faith is priceless. This faith test is more valuable than gold. Given a stack of gold or a trial by fire, Peter chooses the fire because of the long term benefits. Listen to this, “Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy (1 Pet. 4:12-13). Don’t get stumbled by your “fiery trial.” View it as an opportunity to bring joy to the heart of God in the here-and-now, and “exceeding joy” to you later.
4. God can be glorified and honored “in the fire.” Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were not alone in the furnace, and neither are you. Even Nebuchadnezzar said, “I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.” There are times when you are blind to any constructive purpose or conceivable benefit, but others are being helped. Your steadfastness in calamity will strengthen the many who are observing you. Better to be in the fire with Christ than out of the furnace without Him. 
5. “Wherein ye greatly REJOICE, though now for a season.” Don’t wait for this season to pass before you rejoice. Go ahead and praise the LORD even though you may not feel like it. If you wait for your emotions to kick in, you may have a long wait. As has been said, “You will come a lot closer to ACTING your way into feeling than FEELING your way into acting.” God will bring you out as you engage your will. “To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness” (Isa 61:3). 

One of the best things you can do in your "season of heaviness" is to minister to others in the same predicament. Focusing on others can lessen your own grief. Do everything in your power to bring joy and happiness to the brokenhearted. Laughter releases a healing power for the downcast. I recall a man, whose mate had attempted suicide, telling how his good friend helped him. This friend had one mission, and that was to make him laugh. This situation was no laughing matter, but he was strengthened in the midst of his perplexity. Laughter is good medicine. Remember, whatever you do for others, God will do for you. "Knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord" (Eph. 6:8).
And should you find yourself with a free spirit presently, you can "refresh" the spirit of those who find themselves in a season of heaviness. Paul was thankful for Onesiphorus who refreshed him in his imprisonment. When Paul was down to nothing, Onesiphorus believed God was still up to something. He ministered to his friend in his suffering. This was not a one-time event; he refreshed Paul often. Compassion can unlock prison doors for those who are bound in sorrow. Sow encouragement into others daily. Keep on the lookout for those who are battling discouragement. Use your influence to minister encouragement, faith, and hope to those passing through their

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"INNER MAN" PRAYER

By Harold Vaughan I have seen hundreds of church prayer lists over the years. One thing stands out: the vast majority of the Prayer Requests concern the OUTER MAN (the physical body). Beyond question, Scripture addresses the physical concerns. For example, "Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth" (3 John 1).
With that said, there is a larger emphasis in the Bible on the INNER MAN. Paul prayed, "That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the INNER MAN" (Eph. 3:16). The OUTER MAN is not unimportant, but the INNER MAN is even more vital.
Paul was concerned about the character of the Ephesian Christians; their soul, their heart and mind—their INNER MAN. His prayer was that they would experience the LOVE of Christ and be FILLED with all the fullness of God (vs. 17-19).
So why the apparent reluctance to share personal, INNER MAN prayer requests? When we value the state of our souls as much as we do our bodies, our Prayer Lists will reflect this. A spiritual revival would not eliminate OUTER MAN concerns, but the INNER MAN requests would soon dwarf them.
Pride causes a person to CONCEAL and COVER UP. Humility empowers men and women to CONFESS and OPEN UP. So let's enlist intercessors for our own INNER MAN needs. Get with people who care for you and GET REAL—be honest. Then pray for others like Paul prayed for the Ephesians—"to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the INNER MAN".

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A Horrible Destiny

Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come. (1 Thessalonians 1:10)
Do you remember the time you were lost as a child, or slipping over a precipice, or about to drown? Then suddenly you were rescued. You held on for “dear life.” You trembled for what you almost lost. You were happy. Oh, so happy, and thankful. And you trembled with joy.
That’s the way I feel at the end of the year about my rescue from God’s wrath. All day Christmas we had a fire in the fireplace. Sometimes the coals were so hot that when I stoked it my hand hurt. I pulled back and shuddered at the horrendous thought of the wrath of God against sin in hell. Oh, how unspeakably horrible that will be!
Christmas afternoon I visited a woman who had been burned over 87 percent of her body. She has been in the hospital since August. My heart broke for her. How wonderful it was to hold out hope to her from God’s word for a new body in the age to come! But I came away not only thinking about her pain in this life, but also about the everlasting pain I have been saved from through Jesus.
Test my experience with me. Is this trembling joy a fitting way to end the year? Paul was glad that “Jesus . . . delivers us from the wrath to come” (1 Thessalonians 1:10). He warned that “for those who . . . do not obey the truth . . . there will be wrath and fury” (Romans 2:8). And “because of [sexually immorality, impurity, and covetousness] the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience” (Ephesians 5:6).
Here at the end of the year, I am finishing my trek through the Bible and reading the last book, Revelation. It is a glorious prophecy of the triumph of God, and the everlasting joy of all who “take the water of life without price” (Revelation 22:17). No more tears, no more pain, no more depression, no more sorrow, no more death, no more sin (Revelation 21:4).
But oh, the horror of not repenting and not holding fast to the testimony of Jesus! The description of the wrath of God by the “apostle of love” (John) is terrifying. Those who spurn God’s love will “drink the wine of God’s wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night” (Revelation 14:10–11).
“And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:15). Jesus will “tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty” (Revelation 19:15). And blood will flow “from the winepress, as high as a horse’s bridle, for 184 miles” (Revelation 14:20). Whatever that vision signifies, it is meant to communicate something unspeakably terrible.
I tremble with joy that I am saved! But oh, the holy wrath of God is a horrible destiny. Flee this, brothers and sisters. Flee this with all your might. And let us save as many as we can! No wonder there is more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous (Luke 15:7)!

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The Heart of True Repentance

Few things in the life of a believer are as disheartening as the long struggle with persistent sins. This is particularly true when we have experienced victory over sin in other areas of our life. We know God has the power to get rid of our sin, so why won’t he?
It may sound counterintuitive, but sometimes victory over some sin tarries because God desires to teach us how to truly repent of that sin. God desires his people to know not only how to walk in holiness, but also to obey his command to rend our hearts when we fall short of his glory (Joel 2:13). Yes, sin in our life is a problem, but so is a life where we haven’t learned how to truly repent of sin.

Torn Hearts

We’ve all probably seen a pastor illustrate the concept of repentance during a Sunday morning sermon. He walks across the stage on “the path of sin” and tells us that repenting is not merely stopping as we walk down the path, but turning to walk back in the direction of God. This is absolutely right; repentance involves both turning away from sin and turning back to the Father. However, the illustration fails to provide the posture of our heart as we come back to God. This is no incidental point, but gets to the very core of what true repentance is all about.

“True repentance, like all good things, is a gift of God.”

In Joel 2:12–13, the Lord calls to Israel, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.” In the Old Testament, people commonly expressed great grief and anguish by tearing their cloaks. But more than caring about the proper “signs” of being upset about their sin, God cared that they actually grieved over them in their hearts — grieved to the point of weeping and mourning.
In his famous psalm of repentance, David reminds us that God does not delight so much in the outward signs of repentance (which included making a sacrifice), but “the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise” (Psalm 51:17). We’re not talking about the shame and condemnation the enemy wants to heap on us, but a godly grief.
We can be in the habit of going through the motions when it comes to repenting, but these passages show that the most important thing is the condition of our heart. Does your repentance look like a heart that has been rent like a garment, broken and contrite as it beats before God? This attitude is missing from most repentance, and it’s the very thing God is trying to teach us!

How to Get a Broken Heart

It may sound strange, but how do we go about getting a broken heart?
First, we simply need to ask for it. True repentance, like all good things, is a gift of God (2 Timothy 2:25). If we want to obey the command to rend our hearts, we must ask God to grant us true repentance.

“The more glimpses we have of the glory of God, the more we mourn for scorning that glory.”

We must also be aware of one of the biggest hindrances to obtaining a broken heart: our neglect of the relational aspect of sinning. By this, I mean that we can view sin as a failure of performance rather than a failure of intimacy. The only grief we experience is disappointment in our inability to do what is right, and not that we have “despised” the living God (2 Samuel 12:9).
When we sin, we play the part of an adulterer who looks for satisfaction in another, rather than the only One who can satisfy. That is why David said to the Lord, “against you, you only, have I sinned” (Psalm 51:4). David rightly saw his failures in terms of relationship, and as a result his heart was grieved as it can be only when we have sinned against the One we love so much.

Behold His Glory

Finally, true repentance comes not merely by understanding the relational aspect of sin, but by understanding the nature of the One with whom we are in relationship. In other words, the more we see God as glorious and holy, the more we will see sin as something to weep over. Repentance is less about feeling bad over behavior, and more about feeling awe and delight towards God. The more glimpses we have of the glory of God, the more we mourn for scorning that glory.
In the end, God’s plan for us is that we will be holy as he is holy (1 Peter 1:16). He will surely do it! In the meantime, he desires a brokenhearted people who have learned to mourn over their sin.

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