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Pastor's Blog April 23, 2020
"Consecration III"
{Scroll over scripture reference to read the scripture or reference.
"Many are inquiring, ' How am I to make the surrender of myself to God?'" ("Steps to Christ," 30; 1977 edition, emphasis original). Thus our friend Ellen articulates the question many of us have been asking since we started going through her book together: if I want to live the holy, victorious Christian life, how in the world do I do that?! And it's right here that Ellen provides her most direct and explicit answer (though she spends the entirety of "Steps to Christ" answering that question).
She begins by indicating where a lot of us are in the Christian life: full of desire to live a holy life, but unable in our own moral strength to live it (30). Perhaps some of us struggle with moral weakness and all our "promises and resolutions are like ropes of sand"; maybe doubt has such a hold on us that we can't break free from the old habits and are enslaved to some of the major sins of our old way of life; or it's possible that some of us are so full of despair at our past moral failings that we lack confidence in God's ability to help and accept us (30).
No matter! Ellen points out that the key to victory is not in our abilities, of which we have none to pursue holiness, but rather in the correct use of our will and Christ having our hearts: "What you need to understand is the true force of the will....Everything depends on the right action of the will....You cannot change your heart, you cannot of yourself give to God its affections; but you can choose to serve Him. You can give Him your will; He will then work in you to will and to do according to His good pleasure" (30; emphasis original). And it's right here that most of us get tripped up, because we either think we just need to try really hard to give our wills to God (whatever that means), or else we need to try really hard to "will" our wills into God's hands (whatever that means).
But notice what Ellen says: it all depends on the right exercise of the will, and YOU can't exercise your will properly; it's only as JESUS has possession of your will that it will be exercised properly.
Okay, then how does Jesus exercise our wills properly, and thus have our hearts? Simple: "through [your] constant surrender to God" by "yielding up your will to Christ" in ongoing relationship with him (31). In this way the Lord will live his beautiful, holy life in and through you (31).
(*) Steps to Christ 1977 edition; Chapter 5, “Consecration”
{SC 30, 31}
God Bless.
Pastor Nathaniel Gamble
