Sunday Leftovers (4/29/07)

God has gifted every believer with at least one spiritual gift and at the same time He is also producing His fruit in that believer through the working of the Holy Spirit.

So the longer a believer walks with Christ, more and more fruit is produced. And the longer a believer serves Christ in the church, the more he uses his gift and the more refined the use of that gift becomes, and inevitably the more effective he becomes in the use of that gift. And when that happens, he also becomes more and more susceptible to believing that his adequacy is in himself and not in God.

When that temptation arises, he needs to hear again the words of the apostle Paul —

• For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing; to the one an aroma from death to death, to the other an aroma from life to life. And who is adequate for these things? (2 Cor. 2:15-16)
  
• For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin. (Rom. 7:18-25)
  
• It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all. Yet for this reason I found mercy, so that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in Him for eternal life. (1 Tim. 1:15-16)
  
  

It is undoubtedly those kind of words that drove William Carey to write to his father:

I see more and more my own insufficiency for the great work I am called to. The truths of God are amazingly profound, the souls of men infinitely precious, my own ignorance very great, and all that I do is for God who knows my movies and my ends, my diligence or negligence. When I (in short) compare my self with my work, I sink into a point, a mere despicable nothing.

So there is a balance to be had for the believer — recognize our own inadequacy, and recognize the strength and provision that God is working in and through us to accomplish His purposes.