Devotion - Thursday, February 15

This morning I was reading from Oswald Chambers' My Utmost for His Highest.  He speaks of God's desire for us.  "It is a snare to image that God wants to make us perfect specimens of what He can do; God's purpose is to make us one with Himself."

The images a child forms of what it means to be a Christian will naturally include morality and a code of ethics.  We are incapable of abstract thought, so we move to a level which we can understand.

Hopefully, as we mature (scripture speaks of eating meat rather than only drinking milk) we will begin to understand that we are striving to something different that obeying a particular set of rules.

Again, from O Chambers:  Christian perfection is not, and never can be, human perfection.  Christian perfection is the perfection of a relationship to God .... God is not after perfecting me to be a specimen in His show-room;  He is getting me to the place where He can use  me.

May your Lenten journey affirm your identity as a child of God; might it encourage you to strengthen that identity; and may you become more useful to the God whose purpose is to extend grace.