At His Feet

Today's daily reading from "My Utmost For His Highest" by Oswald Chambers:

Come to Me . . . —Matthew 11:28
SELF-AWARENESS

God intends for us to live a well-rounded life in Christ Jesus, but there are times when that life is attacked from the outside. Then we tend to fall back into self-examination, a habit that we thought was gone. Self-awareness is the first thing that will upset the completeness of our life in God, and self-awareness continually produces a sense of struggling and turmoil in our lives. Self-awareness is not sin, and it can be produced by nervous emotions or by suddenly being dropped into a totally new set of circumstances. Yet it is never God’s will that we should be anything less than absolutely complete in Him. Anything that disturbs our rest in Him must be rectified at once, and it is not rectified by being ignored but only by coming to Jesus Christ. If we will come to Him, asking Him to produce Christ-awareness in us, He will always do it, until we fully learn to abide in Him.

Never allow anything that divides or destroys the oneness of your life with Christ to remain in your life without facing it. Beware of allowing the influence of your friends or your circumstances to divide your life. This only serves to sap your strength and slow your spiritual growth. Beware of anything that can split your oneness with Him, causing you to see yourself as separate from Him. Nothing is as important as staying right spiritually. And the only solution is a very simple one— “Come to Me . . . .” The intellectual, moral, and spiritual depth of our reality as a person is tested and measured by these words. Yet in every detail of our lives where we are found not to be real, we would rather dispute the findings than come to Jesus.

The Lord is continually teaching me to lay everything at His feet including the very gifts He has given to me in answer to my requests. He gives to us that we may give back to Him. You may wonder why God would give you something so wonderful just to ask for it back...He wants us to trust Him. If we can't trust Him with the gifts He Himself has given us, how can we trust Him at all?

I think of Hannah in 1 Samuel who prayed for years to the Lord to give her a son.
"And she vowed a vow, and said, O LORD of hosts, if thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaid, and remember me, and not forget thine handmaid, but wilt give unto thine handmaid a man child, then I will give him unto the LORD all the days of his life, and there shall no razor come upon his head."

She poured out her soul to the Lord and He soon gave her a son, Samuel. She goes before the Lord again in prayer,
"For this child I prayed; and the LORD hath given me my petition which I asked of him: Therefore also I have lent him to the LORD; as long as he liveth he shall be lent to the LORD."

She gives back to the Lord what she had prayed for.

This must be our pattern as well. We can trust the Lord with our lives and with what is most dear to our hearts.

Lay everything down at His feet.