1 Corinthians 15:28
It lies in the very being and nature of God that He must be all. From Him and through Him and to Him are all things.
Sin consists in nothing but this, that man determined to be something and would not allow God to be everything; and the redemption of Jesus has no other aim than that God should again become everything in our heart and life. Christ himself showed in His life on earth what it means to be nothing and to allow God to be everything.
The all of God is what we must seek. There should be no use of our time, no word on our lips, no motivation of our heart, no satisfying of the needs of our physical life that is not the expression of the will, the glory, and the power of God. God must not be merely something to us or even a lot, but all.
Even as believers we often make it our first aim to find out who we are, what we desire, what pleases us and makes us happy. Then we bring in God in the second place to secure this happiness. We do not discern that God must have us at His disposal even in the most trivial details of our life to manifest His divine glory in us. (Remember what we have learned about worship?) We are not aware that this entire filling with the will and operation of God would also prove to be our highest happiness. We do not know that the very same Christ, who once lived upon the earth as the obedient, lowly servant of God, is prepared to abide and work in like manner in our heart and life now.
Take Christ afresh today as the one who has given His life that God may be all, and yield your life for this supreme end. God will fill you to overflowing with His Holy Spirit.
These words are from Andrew Murray (1828-1917), missionary and pastor in South Africa. They are timely for us as we begin to study the history of the moving of the Holy Spirit. I pray, as we start Acts this Sunday, that our church, too, will experience the power of the Holy Spirit. It happens not because we have had some "awesome worship experience", but because we have yielded our all to Him. Make Christ your all in all today.
