Nothing To Lose

"Who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death - even death on a cross." Philippians 2:7-8

As we continue to journey with the LORD we see how His beautiful example is set before us. Our Savior was a man not bound by thoughts of Himself or His reputation. His purpose and His love was pure. In the purity of His heart He was able to carry every injustice done to Him with a pure attitude because of His surrendered will and all He did He did for the Father. His example to each of us is one that says...it is always a loss to hold on to all that God tell us to 'give'. There is no greater way to give to another than to give their life for another. ..and this is the beautiful example we have been given in Christ.

There is a bondage in our hearts when we carry chains that bind us because of a love that is not pure....because of our own wanted reputations and we feel these chains gripping our heart when insults or criticisms come against us...when pride rises its ugly head within us when self dominates the spirit of Christ living within us. The road that leads to life is narrow and we pass through it free when we don't care about our reputation, or need vindication or wanting solutions or when the words of men mean more to us than the Words of God. When we lay these chains at His feet we are freed. These chains are chains we often put upon ourselves, imprisoning our own hearts and only through humility can we walk in freedom and experience His peace as we stoop lower and lower recognizing our weaknesses and that without a pure heart we can profit nothing.

Jesus stooped low...and in the purity of His heart He was able to carry in His heart every injustice done to Him....He did it for the Father and for the sake of mankind. As we are willing to stoop and accept all He allows....all our sorrows and deaths....our hearts become free as we realize despite all things we have God who has not forgotten us and who sees all things and who promises us that He cannot fail us...we experience His joy, His life, His peace....a freedom because we gain a deeper understanding of His life...a freedom of the things of this world and all that wants to try and satisfy us - its a freedom in our souls because the things and people of the world do not define us nor do the things that come against us....we see more and more that we have nothing to lose when we see that we have nothing to keep.

This is living in all of Him and for Him...knowing who we are in Christ. Its letting go of the earthly things and of our mixed emotions...allowing God to strip away the things we hold on too and allowing Him at times to bring us to an end of ourselves...and God allowing us to see that in ourselves we can do nothing and we are nothing. This is a good place for our souls...because it is in this place where we begin to allow God to do all the work and have His way. When we look away from our self and relinquish the tight grip we have on our wills and fully trust God in that place through His Word we are "fully persuaded that God is able to do all that He has promised."

This is ministry, the giving up of our self for the life of another. And there is freedom in our service to God in the surrender of our self, our reputation, our goals and desires...yes, in the giving up of our costliest possessions… when Christ is our whole life. The giving up of self is the greatest act of service and it pleases our Father to minister to others as we put aside our own concerns and give comfort, strength and share our life with others. "We who are strong ought to bear with the shortcomings of the weak and not to please ourselves" Romans 15:1....to share our lives with our brothers and sisters in the body of Christ. It pleases our Fathers heart when we act in loving service to those He has knitted us together with and He becomes our greatest example to follow. Jesus knew the cost and He paid it anyway. Can we?

Surrendering His own will, He laid down his life on behalf of all mankind...He came to offer us help...to save us. Losing His life allowed us to live. He emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant.... He humbled Himself and became obedient to death - even death on a cross.

Even as Christ was betrayed He said, "Shall I not drink of the cup the Father has given Me?" I don't know what is in your cup this day...but as we accept and receive and drink the cup He has placed before us....we know it comes from His hand and it is apart of His plan. It is beautiful to see how God works all things together for good despite how painful or unjust something may appear as we accept His cup and stay in the center of His will. In doing so it too is an emptying of our self with a filling of His Spirit and becoming His servant and humbling ourselves and even to the point of death.

After the death of Randy I have received so many words of comfort along with the assurance of so many prayers...I was sustained and experienced the sufficiency of His grace, God was faithful. I prayed and I continued to pray for the Lord to continue to give me courage to submit to His Spirit and to part each day from all that I hold on to tightly if it separates me from the Lord in any way. I know that I must follow Christ wherever He goes and to be in the center of His will....despite pain...but that my pain would have a purifying work in my heart as I remain still in Him and allow Him to have his perfect work.

He stands ready to supply us with all that we need and He never gives us more than what we can bear....He never allows anything to touch our life that He will not give us His power to endure. As we receive our cup in obedience we learn to know Him in the fellowship of His suffering...and we experience the power of His resurrection....and we begin to grow and mature as we see that He alone is sufficient in all things and He loves to make His Word proven to us as it is to our faith in Him.

Through all of life there is only one path we can trust and as remain on this path He will transform all that is lost, all our pain, and make it all into something purposeful...for His glory. This journey with Christ will cost each of us something...as we lay down our lives for Him.

Often when my heart is weak I am reminded of Psalm 141:2 "Let the lifting up of my hands be as the evening sacrifices" and I am simply able to lift my hands to the Lord in praise and acceptance. We always have life out of death...out of pain comes glory.

Shall we not go with God at all costs and at all lengths....in His plans for us? God desires to use the things "He has wrought in us" for the blessings of souls around us and those still unknown to us. This requires me to allow the Holy Spirit to manage me and for me to cooperate with Him...to rid my flesh and let it go to death in order to grow in His new life. To be confirmed into His image - Him increasing that I am decreasing. To have the determination to live for the one who died for us. To live as He lived. To suffer as He suffered. To then know that it is good to be in that place where we feel helpless but then to remain faithful and believe that although things may appear not very clear...we must know that God is not done with us yet!

Our obedience effects others...the life we have been given in Christ is to be passed on. Ministry is multiplied. I can look back over the many years of me knowing Christ and through the years of serving Him and I can thank Him for the things in which He has allowed me to suffer. Dying daily deaths...and through the death of my husband...God was always there. God was always faithful as we did our part God did His. This is the way God works...no matter how overwhelming our situation is....doing our part is to suffer for Him and trust God to do His as we leave it at the foot of the cross.

God had showed me that it was His will to wait on Him regarding some things I was struggling with in 2017. To trust in Him and wait. This Word was a constant and I never thought what was coming but I started seeing some changes in our life and God again told me to wait on Him. Eventually I had come up against the greatest challenge of my life....and after I thought I had given God my all....He now wanted more. More trust and more belief...to believe God with that which was most precious to me, my husband....knowing that God would never allow anything to come into my life that He would not have worked out for my good and for the good of others. This time was one of the biggest spiritual battles of my life....to give my all at all costs...to give Him all of me through unbearable pain and to live in full acceptance and say Yes Lord to whatever He willed......laying down all at His feet....to the point where I had nothing to loose because I had given it all to Him.

This is hard....but this is being free and allowing God to do as He wills. To endure suffering and experiencing a crashing of self and the tears of Gethsemane with scars of the cross that we bear and the choice to endure and live in peace with God, that it would be all God and not me. No longer my life but His. I am not my own...but bought with a price and that means I belong to Him therefore I must be willing to accept the circumstances for His sake.

May we lay at His feet our desires, our plans, our reputation, our wills, our pain, our lives....our self, our service….we then will see we have nothing to lose because in our giving all to Him we learn that we have nothing to keep.

"I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me" Galatians 2:20

Michelle A Guerra