Sanctification Through Humility

Friends,

"Its not the end that glorifies God, its the process." - Oswald Chambers

Man needs to keep vision on God's eternal focus rather than their own desires or what they think is the "right path" More and more in my own life I am learning this process of sanctification- Chambers puts it best when he refers sanctification to the "being crucified with Christ"

"For I have been crucified with Christ- it is no longer I who lives but Christ who loves me and gave himself for me." Galatians 2:20

Most of the time I aim to do things the "hard way" making ends meet, getting the job done--everything in my own way. Unfortunately thats not the way God wants it to be. Being crucified in Christ means that I need to sacrifice my ways and let God take over, let His plan reign over my life, let Him mold me more and more into the man of Christ that I need to be. Otherwise, I'll be stuck in a rut trying to figure things out on my own without Christ's eternal focus that He shows us when we follow Him. Last weekend, I truly learned this lesson during the Iron Sharpens Iron Retreat that I had planned- everything I had planned turned out to go differently. Christ taught me that in order for His way to work, you must lay down what you have and run to Him!

"For He must become greater, I must become less." John 3:30

Let us continue to lay ourselves down for His glory,

Matt

Humility Through Our Successes

How great is a PR!

For everyone who doesn't understand the running lingo, PR means personal record. Eight laps around the track may seem like the worst 8-15 minutes of a man's life; however I can certainly say a PR is one of the most rewarding things in a runner's career. A person may go home elated, perhaps for the next couple of days, and man what a great feeling it is.

However a question struck me after trying to recover after my race that wait: How did I finish that race, I was dying after the first mile! Indeed if you had watched me run, you could of seen it in my face that I had nothing left.

Some of my initial answers included maybe that it was my training, the way I slept, the way I ate, and simple details that worked well. But truly looking back, none of that influenced my race. My true strength came from the Lord, the One who gave me the legs to run as well as the energy and endurance to finish the race. For each step I take further in athletics, I must take a step further in my humility to acknowledge Christ's presence and support in my life. I am astounded everyday in my training when I have no more gas in the tank and Christ pulls me through, however I still am not giving Him the credit that He deserves. And no there is no splitting credit with God 50/50, every single bit of it belongs to Him, the rightful owner. "For He must Become greater, I must become less," John 3:30 says. If we truly hold to this mindset, every action that we do in life must glorify God, our Alpha and Omega.

Keep this humble mindset in mind as I will this week friends,

Matt