Apr. 16, 2017 [Sunday]
Our substantiated life in God always starts with self-denial. Jesus speaks of the need for a disciple to “carry our crosses” daily. Paul testifies that he “died daily”, so that Christ could live in him.
The mystery of “death in Christ” can never be fully appreciated until it is no more a repulsive notion that the requirement for holiness will have to be translated intuitively into the abandonment of our self-will in everyday life. No amount of intellectual enducation or exercise of compulsive endeavors can produce such a life of discipline. These are from human passion and human energy. But there is a way by peace and grace of God that we add faith to faith, death to death through the sanctification of the Holy Spirit.
“The Counselor will guide you into all things. ” To guide someone, is more than to inform someone. It is to lead someone to a destined place. For a disciple of the Son of God, this implies a companionship of imposed discipline. Jesus “forwarned” Peter on this:
“Very truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.”
John 21:18
What a foresight of our Lord into our Heavenly Father’s guidance unto a son into maturity. Indeed, it is often in the daily things that the Father imputed His ways and His will to us with His eternal and divine wisdom, even through the highs and lows of a devoted life.