A Challenge

Thought for the day

I've been challenged lately along a particular line of thinking. I was reading a book entitled "Divine Healing" and Andrew Murray points out that the salvation Christ offers us is not for our souls only, but for our bodies as well. It makes me think about all the things that we commonly consider as benefits of our salvation...peace, comfort, wisdom, strength, healing, joy, right standing with God, and so on. But what exactly was God's intent and purpose in saving us?? The Bible teaches that we are to become the righteousness of God in Christ. We are to be holy as He is holy. Now I'm not advocating a performance theology, but the question is put to me... Do I want what Jesus died to provide for me? That's easy to answer in terms of joy, peace, wholeness, comfort, forgiveness, and so on...sign me up!!!
But if He died and rose again that I may be holy, is that what I want? Do I want Him to have His way and put His finger on ANY and ALL areas of my life? Or do I only want holiness up to the level of my comfort and I'll settle for forgiveness for the rest??? Do I have the right to dictate what parts of Christ's salvation I want and will accept and submit to? Do I want only the parts that feel good and make me comfortable, or do I want Him to have His way (which, of course, will be the most blessed state for me as well)?
I'm certainly in no way pointing fingers at anyone, but I think we could all benefit from asking ourselves these questions. What parts and pieces of our personality, temperament, and preferences do we hang on to and feel we have a right to? Those are likely the very things that Christ would free us from in order to make us holy. Are we willing?