One Amazing Summer: What Question Is God Asking You?

I’m behind.  Again.  Not as far behind as before but behind nonetheless.  That’s my full disclosure notice.  #giggle

But on with the post, right?

I’ve been teaching my Sunday School class the last few weeks.  Since I’m filling in for the summer and each week we have so many people out on vacation, I decided to teach about the different Jewish feasts and festivals and how they relate to our lives as Christians.  I could spend days digging into the connections between the Old Testament and the New Testament.  {Another disclosure:  I  am learning not everyone thinks these sorts of things are interesting.}

Yesterday, we were digging into Rosh Hashanah, the Feast of Trumpets.  We moved from Leviticus to Matthew to 1 Corinithians and 1 Thessalonians finally ending in Relevalation following the trail of trumpets in Scripture.   I never cease to be amazed at the reminder that the Bible truly is one story … from start to finish, the story of God’s love for us.


one amazing summer sanctification www.terilynneunderwood.com

This morning I read Isaiah 53.  This prophetic chapter about the Messiah is filled with hints of who Christ would be and how He would live and die.   This morning as I read this chapter, I thought how I would feel if this was the prophecy of my life:

  • Nothing about her would attract others. (v. 2)
  • She was despised, rejected, suffered much, and held in low esteem.  (v. 3)
  • She bore the burdens of others and yet they considered her punished by God for it.  (v. 4)

Yesterday and today my readings in My Utmost for His Highest* have been about sanctification.  Yesterday, I read these words:

In the process of sanctification, the Spirit of God will strip me down until there is nothing left but myself, and this is the place of death. Am I willing to be myself and nothing more? … Am I willing to reduce myself down to simply “me”?  Am I determined enough to strip myself of all that my friends think of me, and all the I think of myself?  Am I willing and determined to hand over my simple naked self to God?

Jesus was willing to be stripped of everything that had always identified Him – the authority and honor of being the Son of God to be humbled and humiliated as the Son of Man.  

Perhaps I’m not so behind on my reading after all.  Perhaps I am right where God wants me … because this question is burning inside me:

Am I willing  and determined to hand over my simple naked self to God?

What question is God asking you right now?

{*another disclosure: affiliate link included in this post}

Read the Psalms this summer with Scripture Dig!

Comments

  1. Wow, how would we feel with this being the prophecy over our lives? Thinking…

    And yet we are asked to be made into His image.
    Humbling.

    {beautiful post}
    Stacey recently posted…The Joy DareMy Profile

    • It just left me undone when I read it today. Totally undone. Am I willing to be despised, unnoticed, insignificant, naked (as Chambers said), so that He can be exalted, honored, esteemed?

      Hard question.

      {thank you}

  2. I love that kind of stuff too, and I have also discovered that not everyone loves it. Moreso, I think they don’t like so much of it. When I put in a point or two like what you describe into a lesson, people love it. When I throw too much of it at them, they get overwhelmed easily. At least, that’s the way it seems.

    I also wanted to mention that I follow a blogged called Armchair Theology (http://www.armchair-theology.net/). Based on what you mention in this post, you might like it.

    • Yes, Kari, I totally agree about them not liking too much of it. That’s probably more accurate in most situations.

      I will check out the blog you mentioned. Thank you for sharing with me.

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