I was reading from My Utmost for His Highest, which is a devotional by Oswald Chambers. This devotional was so impactful, that I thought I would just share it with you this month! First, I would like to set the stage by giving the definition to two words:
Relinquish: To withdraw from; to leave; to quit. Voluntarily cease to keep or claim; give up. (with a design never to resume it. In general, to relinquish is to leave without the intention of resuming)
Pretense: an attempt to make something that is not the case, appear true.
March 8th
“I am crucified with Christ…”Gal. 2:20
“No one is ever united with Jesus Christ until he is willing to relinquish not sin only, but his whole way of looking at things. To be born from above of the Spirit of God means that we must let go before we lay hold, and in the first stages it is the relinquishing of all pretense. What Our Lord wants us to present to Him is not goodness, nor honesty, nor endeavor, but real solid sin; that is all He can take from us. And what does He give in exchange for our sin? Real solid righteousness. But we must relinquish all pretense of being anything, all claim of being worthy of God’s consideration.
Then the Spirit of God will show us what further there is to relinquish. There will have to be the relinquishing of my claim to my rights to myself in every phase. Am I willing to relinquish my hold on all I possess, my hold on my affections, and on everything, and to be identified with the death of Jesus Christ?
There is always a sharp painful disillusionment to go through before we do relinquish. When a man really sees himself as the Lord sees him, it is not the abominable sins of the flesh that shock him, but the awful nature of the pride of his own heart against Jesus Christ. When he sees himself in the light of the Lord, the shame and the horror and the desperate conviction come home.
If you are up against the question of relinquishing, go through the crisis, relinquish all, and God will make you fit for all that He requires of you.”
Oswald Chambers