The Lie Of "Not Enough"Sample

5) “All of Him, in All of me”

The book, The Indwelling Life of Christ, by Major W. Ian Thomas, has a subtitle All of Him, In All of Me. This author convinced me of the importance of daily dying (to myself and my control freak)  in order to really live. So what is REALLY LIVING? I began to crave His will His way instead of my will, my way. I have found a deeply satisfying freedom in this hunger of mine. This is where our true sufficiency is established. 

My sufficiency for this life will never come from my brains, my college degree, my skills or my personal assets. The Christian life is not about our own capacity or our own abilities. It is about God’s access to fulfilling His will for our days. The only true limit to my adequacy is my availability. It’s not about who we are, but about who He is. Not about what we offer, but about what He offers us, which is all of Himself and His power working through our empty and yielded selves. The key to my sufficiency is my dependency. My control freak personality doesn’t like this at all. It doesn’t make earthly sense. But the wisdom of the years has taught me the power-filled truth of this concept: a “dying to live” so to speak.

Now my prayer is for all of Him to be in all of me for all of my days. Less of me, more of Him. That is my hope! I ask the Lord to help me get myself out of His way! He can do so much more through my empty self than I could accomplish through lots of toil and labor. I know that whenever my “vine” is totally plugged into His “branch” that He will produce His fruit through me and not of my own effort but by His power. I need ALL of Him in ALL of me, ALL the time. This is true freedom. May it be so!

Questions to ponder:

· How would you assess the degree of your availability to all of Him in all of you?

· What is an area where you feel a hunger for control? Or a craving for greater surrender?

· How does your understanding that He is the vine and you are the branch affect your behavior?

Life-giving Prayer:

Oh Lord, please forgive me for being such a control freak. I have centered myself in the very middle of my world. Teach me the wisdom of daily dying so that I can truly live. Save me from myself and my small thinking. I know that I have plans but I truly want your purposes to prevail. Help me realize that the very end of my rope or myself is the very best place to be if it leads me to dependency on You. I want all of You in all of me! Always.