 |
| The Valley of Elah, Israel |
My friend V.H. asked, "John, how can I pray for you?"
I replied: Pray that I would, more and more, be saved from myself, and that I would gain more and more of the mind of Christ.
While a lot of freedom has come to me in my 44 years of following Jesus, I have not yet fully arrived. I haven't fully arrived in the sense of having the loving heart of Jesus, and the clarity of the mind of Christ. In this way I am like Paul who himself had not fully arrived, but was pressing on to make the experiential reality of Christ his own.
Pray that my "in Christ" status (I am a new creation!) would be my common experience, my default spiritual setting. That would mean I'd be free to love others without needing to be loved in return.
As for my part in this, I know what I must do. I am cooperating with God's Spirit by intentionally abiding in Christ. I cannot change my self. But I can be changed, by the love and power of God.
