My Utmost For his Highest Dec.7......HELP!

[Smithaw1]

Here lately I have been thinking that there is something missing in my life. That I have never really seen God or known him as my savior. And that I have never really been born again, changed into a new creation. If anyone reading this reads My Utmost For His Highest,I need some advice. Two devotionals that say something to me are December 7 and January 10th. In them Chambers talks about being converted and not being saved and being led by the Holy spirit to repentance. I don't think this has ever happened to me and I don't sense the Holy Spirit or conviction from sin even now. I need prayer and I need thoughts and Christian advice.

 

[Serenity Now!]

I have not read that book, but they are having a great discussion in Deeper Fellowship thread that may be helpful. It's about people who think that are saved. It's found in Matt 7

Here's the link. Hope it helps. If you should still have questions, you should ask them over in Deeper Fellowship. There are many smart people over there that know their Bible and have studied it. I wish I could help you more.

http://www.christianforums.com/t1023279

 

[Yachtsman]

Here lately I have been thinking that there is something missing in my life. That I have never really seen God or known him as my savior. And that I have never really been born again, changed into a new creation. If anyone reading this reads My Utmost For His Highest,I need some advice. Two devotionals that say something to me are December 7 and January 10th. In them Chambers talks about being converted and not being saved and being led by the Holy spirit to repentance. I don't think this has ever happened to me and I don't sense the Holy Spirit or conviction from sin even now. I need prayer and I need thoughts and Christian advice.

You are not alone, many are where you are, or have been there. Guilt is a spiritual gift that is your spiritual compass pointing you toward God. When you are moving away from God this guilt compass points you back on track. The purpose of guilt ends the very moment that you realize you error, change course and turnabout, and confess your sinful error to God. At that point, there is no further good use for guilt because there is "no condemnation for those who are within Christ Jesus." If you have guilt after a true repentance and course correction then don't it's from the devil.

Now, if you repeatedly have the same sins (e.g. drugs or sexual sin are repeat sins that are really tough to shake lose from), then you have an interesting problem because you are walking within a very scary "gray area" of the Bible that is tough to prove with certain whether you are, or are not, at risk of going to hell. All I can say with certainty is that you ARE in a risky area at this point and only God can know for sure the answer.

I imagine being thrown into a lake of fire and forced to endure this painful experience forever--hmmm... I would want to endure that for 10 seconds, let alone 10 years, 10 million years, 10 gazillion years cubed + 1... LOL. Seriously, forever is a long time, and 100,000 or even 1 million years is only a spec of sand on the great beach of time when it comes to forever! I've made a lot of stupid mistakes in my life, but never one that compare to lake of fire judgement FOREVER! So, with that in mind, I decided to take this topic seriously, and give it some study.

Google the term "blotted out of the book of life". I'd always mocked people saying that I could lose my salvation--I immaturely boasted, "I see where it says that I'm 'born again' in the Bible, but I don't see any 'unborn again' procedures--show me the 'unborn again' and I'll believe!" I cringe at how sure of myself I was--and I was a very carnal Christian, doing whatever I wanted, protected by my spiritual fire insurance from the Gospel insurance company of Jesus Christ. I remember saying to myself, "I sure am glad that I accepted Jesus with my whole heart when i was younger, because I just don't think that I can follow him anymore." Wow, that's a scary place to be.

There is an "unborn again" procedure written in the Bible, and it's not very complicated--God one day decides enough is enough and "blots" your name out of the book of life! It's written there, and when you read other verse on this subject, you start to realize that it's at least possible that "once saved always saved" is not true. All I am saying is that do you really want to be taking that chance? Are you so sure of your theology that you can just go one sinning up a storm and know for certain that you're headed toward skyward and not downward when you die?

What I did was talk to God openly and honestly about the situation, and I asked for His help. I said, "God I don't feel you anymore. Is it too late? Would you please forgive me and take me back? Work with me and bring me back into your family?"

I will tell you that it did not occur overnight--God did not give me warm fuzzy's from this prayer or anytime soon. I was forced to prove to Him that I meant what I said, and it was painful along the way with many tests and trials. But each time I did not take them on alone, I ran to God, begging Him to help me through the test, and He always did. Sometimes I fell, but I kept at it, and let me tell you that He did not lie when He said, "resist the devil and he will flee". It is true, so keep this in mind.

The answer is found in these simple steps:

1. Realize you are lost and sinning; tell God honestly, ask for His forgiveness, and ask for help to turn around.
2. Read the Bible and pray the very first thing in the morning and the last thing at night--do this without fail, and I promise this alone will save your life.
3. Go to a Church where people want to grow and get closer to God--and where people don't pretend that everything is perfect in their life; if you don't have trials then something is really wrong, because God promises to test and refine the children that He calls His own.
4. Forget the 10 commandments, focus on just the first commandment--LOVE God with all of your heart. Just focus on this one, do this one perfectly and all of the others will fall into place automatically. If you read the book of Romans you will find that trying to following the 10 commandments is like asking for doom; what it shows is to simply love God and if you love God truly then everything else just happens naturally out of a living growing spirit.
5. Don't give up--God commands us to be persistent. He commands us to endure to the end to win our great reward and spiritual prizes. People think that God is testing us to punish us--He's not, in fact it's the total opposite. He has great rewards for us as we pass each test. Some we see now on Earth as we pass them, and mostly our rewards are eternal and stored up for us in heaven for eternity. Now we don't love God "because" of the rewards, but it is nice to know that all of this pain is actually for good, and not bad. God is providing us with opportunities to win! To succeed, not to fail.

I hope this helps--please don't give up, I've been right where you are, and I promise you that God love you, and there is no amount of sin bad enough, that you cannot be forgiven for, right now, right this second, if you will only authentically confess your sins to God the Father, and asks for help and forgiveness for them through the free gift of salvation offered to us by Jesus Christ.

Let me share with you the ultimate Biblical "Bar of Soap" verse found in 1 John 1:9, "If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness."

There is always hope for you, come back home, come back to the Christian family. Jesus died for all of our sins, and all we have to do is accept His free gift of salvation--but we must ask for it and we must accept it. Jesus must be our LORD and our Savior--He cannot simply be Savior. This is why we read about Jesus warning in Matthew 7:21-23, how many Christians will come to him when it's too late saying "LORD! LORD!" and where He will rebuke them saying, "Go away, for I never knew you!" Wow! I never want to hear those words from Jesus, not when the stakes could not be any higher--losing your salvation, eternity in a lake of fire?! No, you don't want that. Come back, come back to the family. Whatever you though was so great, it's not worth it. Come back to God who loves you.

I have only one last thing to offer. I once said, "Father, I accept your Will for my life, please grant it to me and I will accept it." I now laugh at these words because I realize how lame and stupid they are. Accept His will?! Accept? That's like saying, "Father, OK, I guess that I'll go ahead and accept your gift of gold and diamond for my life." LOL. Seriously, God, creator of the universe, and my heavenly Father, has taken a personal interest in my life, to make it perfect! To sculpt and mold me into precisely what I will be happiest being and doing--to be exactly what I was made to be! "Accept" is the wrong word--please and thank you are the proper words. "Please LORD, allow me to be your Will, and thank you for your great care in doing this." Notice that I said "be your Will"; not "do your Will". I want more than simply "doing the Will of God"... I want to "be it"! I want to be so close to God that I "am" His Will--I am the living, breathing Will of God. I started to capitalize the word Will, because, just as God Word is a living representation of Him, so to is His Will. I want to be the Will of God, His living Will, walking and being all that God desires for me.

I pray for you right now, "LORD please help this person to find you! You say that you are the great potter and will not give up on the work that you have begun. We ask for this now, please do not give up on us. Please complete the work that you have started in us. Please provide us with a miracle and redeem the time that we have lost. Please allow us the chance to be the Will of God that you intended. We ask for your forgiveness for all of our sins in Jesus name, and ask that you will please provide all that is needed to accomplish all that you desire. Please protect us from all harm that would try to hinder or prevent us from doing what you have called us to do. We ask for all of this in the name of Jesus. Amen."

I ask that God will bless you now in all that you do.

 

[Yachtsman]

Here lately I have been thinking that there is something missing in my life. That I have never really seen God or known him as my savior. And that I have never really been born again, changed into a new creation. If anyone reading this reads My Utmost For His Highest,I need some advice. Two devotionals that say something to me are December 7 and January 10th. In them Chambers talks about being converted and not being saved and being led by the Holy spirit to repentance. I don't think this has ever happened to me and I don't sense the Holy Spirit or conviction from sin even now. I need prayer and I need thoughts and Christian advice.

For December 7th, in My Utmost For His Highest, Oswald Chambers begins by quoting a hymn titled "My Sins, My Sins, My Saviour!" I researched and found it and felt that others may be blessed as well in reading it.

MY SINS, MY SINS, MY SAVIOUR!
MY sins, my sins, my Saviour!
They take such hold on me,
I am not able to look up,
Save only, Christ, to Thee:
In Thee is all forgiveness,
In Thee abundant grace,
My shadow and my sunshine
The brightness of Thy face.

My sins, my sins, my Saviour!
How sad on Thee they fall!
Seen through Thy gentle patience,
I tenfold feel them all.
I know they are forgiven;
But still, their pain to me
Is all the grief and anguish
They laid, my Lord, on Thee.

My sins, my sins, my Saviour!
Their guilt I never knew,
Till, with Thee, in the desert
I near Thy passion drew,—
Till, with Thee, in the garden
I heard Thy pleading prayer,
And saw the sweat-drops bloody
That told Thy sorrow there.

Therefore my songs, my Saviour!
E’en in this time of woe,
Shall tell of all Thy goodness
To suffering man below,—
Thy goodness and Thy favour,
Whose presence from above,
Rejoice those hearts, my Saviour,
That live in Thee, and love.
​

SOURCE:

JOHN S. B. MONSELL, LL.D., Vicar of Egham, Surrey. From his “Hymns of Love and Praise for the Church's year,” Long. 1863. For Ash Wednesday. On Ps. Xi. 15: “My sins have taken such hold upon me, that I am not able to look up; yea, they are more in number than the hairs on my head, and my heart hath failed me.”

This and many other incredible hymns can be found at this source:

books.google.com/ebooks/reader?id=Xs8TAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&source=webstore_bookcard&pg=GBS.PR169

Ichthus, Christ in song, hymns of Immanuel, by Philip Schaff, Page 169-170