One of the major struggles we face in this life is to accept and embrace our God-given story. It is such a deep work and one that separates the men from the boys. To stand in the face of your God and receive the story He sovereignly authored is daunting for sure. Next is to be humble enough to bow and ask forgiveness for all the sinful choices we made in response to His choosing. Ooo, and then to accept the blood as the only answer for those choices we made—that’s a pride crusher. But the work of salvation, redemption, and sanctification is the greatest adventure!
Resistance to my story
There are many aspects to my life that I’ve resisted. I’ve spoken of some of them in past posts. Basically, I’ve struggled with the general landscape He created. I would’ve chosen for myself quite differently than He did. Because I’m so myopic, I can usually only judge by my feelings. “This didn’t make me feel good, so it must be wrong!”
What I’m learning of God’s Purpose and Authorship of life is that it’s all for Jesus. The Father is about glorifying His Son and I have the privilege of being a benefactor of this process. At salvation, my story became His story. So now my story is not first for ME, although it totally includes me. Imagine this: the process of the Son’s glorification includes my own sanctification. And in this we are made ONE. When we are vulnerable to His sovereignty, we glorify Him. The breach I created through resisting my story is bridged by the ultimate price that Christ paid and in the Father’s glorification of His Son.
While thinking about this, I went back and read “Joseph” in All and Only. Oh, how perfectly it lays out this whole process of accepting God’s sovereign choices. Here is a barn-burner quote: “Your suffering holds the secrets to your appointed lot and is therefore the hiding place of your power.” The fact that God’s choices can lead to our pain is undeniable, but bowing to His Will in how He chose to lay it out is Life. My embrace of Him as sovereign Lord of my story gives me a rich treasure chest of living power.
My story needs a YES
A friend recently said to me, “I’m learning the importance of saying yes to my story, because it’s only in my story that He has a yes to me.” Our surrender is paramount to actually living in this life. I told a beloved brother today that saying YES to the whole, in a blanket way, would make the process so much easier. I don’t understand it all, but it’s like greasing the wheels of our acceptance. God loves our blank checks to Him! That blanket YES gives us a VIP pass to move through the process, like the ones you can now get at amusement parks. No waiting in lines, just go up to the front. It’s worth the price at amusement parks, as well as in receiving your story.
So the Son is glorified in my life as I accept Him as Author and receive His Will for me. Wow! I’ll leave you with another quote from “Joseph.”
“There aren’t many Josephs. We would rather pet our bitterness then wear a crown. And that is precisely our choice…”
I believe that (maybe not you), but for sure God meant this for me. I give up. It’s time to declare my YES to God and mean it. (And you’re right, John, it IS a deep work.) So thankful for such a big God; too many times I’ve made Him small.
Bless you, John . . . this post is a keeper.
Yep. You are learning the Providence of God. The Puritan authors had a lot to say on this. When I was homeschooling my 3 children I find these themes in non-revisionist history. (ie. history before 1962) I hope that gives you more resources to read on this subject.
Thank you for these wonderful thoughts.
“The process of the Son’s glorification includes my own sanctification. And in this we are made ONE. When we are vulnerable to His sovereignty, we glorify Him.”
“Father is about glorifying His Son…”