Begin at once; before you venture away from this quiet moment, ask your King to take you wholly into his service, and place all the hours of this day quite simply at his disposal, and ask him to make and keep you ready to do just exactly what he appoints. Never mind about tomorrow; one day at a time is enough. Try it today, and see if it is not a day of strange, almost curious peace, so sweet that you will be only too thankful when tomorrow comes to ask him to take it also. –Frances Ridley Havergal (1836-1879)
Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another—to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God. For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death. But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.
— Romans 7:4-6
— Romans 7:4-6
Beloved, it’s all about Him. And we are all His. We belong to our Great Husband, Jesus. And He, stunningly, belongs fully to us. This is the marriage of which are earthly ones are called but shadows.
Would that we might live our lives today in the knowledge that we are wed to Christ in a way more real than the most committed human marriage.
This marriage is full of portent, and has yet to be consummated. May we live, by His grace, in purity as we wait for that blessed day.
And as we wait, let us bathe in His Love and attention to our every need. He is more than willing and surely able to do this and more!
Consecration is the narrow, lonely way to overflowing love. We are not called upon to live long on this planet, but we are called upon to be holy at any and every cost. If obedience costs you your life, then pay it.
–Oswald Chambers (1874-1917)
