Monday, August 20, 2012

Self Awareness & Christ Awareness

(Two devotionals at once because they really go hand in hand)

Come to Me . . .Matthew 11:28

I admit to being very self aware and Chambers says:
Self-awareness is the first thing that will upset the completeness of our life in God, and self-awareness continually produces a sense of struggling and turmoil in our lives.

He is also quick to point out that self-awareness in itself is not a sin...because it can happen suddenly because of nerves or being in an unfamiliar situation, but Chamber goes on to say that:
It is never God’s will that we should be anything less than absolutely complete in Him. Anything that disturbs our rest in Him must be rectified at once, and it is not rectified by being ignored but only by coming to Jesus Christ. If we will come to Him, asking Him to produce Christ-awareness in us, He will always do it, until we fully learn to abide in Him.

I think that is one of my problems.  Instead of getting rid of it right away, I allow it to brew and grow...and then I am in the struggling and turmoil that he mentions previously.  I think it must be a mark of maturity...or at least growing towards that, to be able to recognize that I need to run with it to Jesus to get rid of it right away.

Never allow anything that divides or destroys the oneness of your life with Christ to remain in your life without facing it.

I think I've done this many times because I simply didn't recognize it as the "anything that divides" me from being one with Jesus. Perhaps that is why I'm going along and then I say, "I can't hear Him."

Nothing is as important as staying right spiritually. And the only solution is a very simple one— “Come to Me . . . .”

Continuing on with today's devotional:

. . . and I will give you rest Matthew 11:28.

This is really pounding home the previous devotional of turning to Christ immediately when something is causing us to be separated from Him.  Why have I done this again and again in my life?  Sometimes it is stubbornness...as I mentioned in Saturday's post.  (Oh I know how truly stubborn I can be while walking with Jesus...believe me.  I am also truly fed up with myself...thus this devotional) Othertimes it is really something that has snuck up on me and come to me by surprise.  I pray that the Lord helps me be more and more aware of my being separate from Him so that I run to Him to fix it...instead of waiting and then saying, "Why can't I hear Him?"

Chambers:
Whenever anything begins to disintegrate your life with Jesus Christ, turn to Him at once, asking Him to re-establish your rest. Never allow anything to remain in your life that is causing the unrest. Think of every detail of your life that is causing the disintegration as something to fight against, not as something you should allow to remain. Ask the Lord to put awareness of Himself in you, and your self-awareness will disappear. Then He will be your all in all.

Following Christ is never a passive thing. I admit that I have a passive personality.  I'm generally not especially proud of this. Walking with Christ is something we need to work at.  We need to examine every detail of our lives so we can find the problems that have come between us and Christ, and then, don't stop there, but fight against these problems by taking them to Him and surrendering them.  It is too easy to see them as little and not anything of importance.

Chambers takes it one step furthur by saying:
Beware of allowing your self-awareness to continue, because slowly but surely it will awaken self-pity, and self-pity is satanic.

All I can say is "Ouch" to that one.  Enough said.

The next paragraph in the Chambers study is so good that I cannot disect it with one or two sentences.  It is something to think about deeply:
A complete life is the life of a child. When I am fully conscious of my awareness of Christ, there is something wrong. It is the sick person who really knows what health is. A child of God is not aware of the will of God because he is the will of God. When we have deviated even slightly from the will of God, we begin to ask, “Lord, what is your will?” A child of God never prays to be made aware of the fact that God answers prayer, because he is so restfully certain that God always answers prayer.

And yet in the very next paragraph he says this:
Jesus says, “Come to Me . . . and I will give you rest,” that is, Christ-awareness will take the place of self-awareness.

I guess to put it simply, I just need to "Come to Jesus" because:
Wherever Jesus comes He establishes rest— the rest of the completion of activity in our lives that is never aware of itself.

I guess it is sort of like climbing a giant hill...which I did on Saturday.  I was gasping for breath and needed to sit down for awhile before continuing (this example is not advocating sitting down while following Jesus). What I mean is, I was fully aware that I was in poor shape.  My husband and son just kept moving quite comfortably towards the top. I just want to be able to continue on with my walk without being concious of the fact that I'm either out of shape or in great shape.  Do you know what I mean?

Photo taken by me in the Andes Mountains in Ecuador.

2 comments:

  1. "Beware of allowing your self-awareness to continue, because slowly but surely it will awaken self-pity, and self-pity is satanic."

    I say "ouch" too!

    And yes, I do know what you mean. Gasping for breath makes me totally aware of my inadequacies.

    ReplyDelete