Colossians 3:1-4 “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God… For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.”
George Mueller was known by people around the world for the extraordinary answers to his prayers on a continual basis. One day he was urged to share the secret of the effectiveness of his ministry and prayer life. In his answer he spoke of his ‘secret death’. “There was a day,” he said, “when I died; utterly died.” He spoke deliberately and quietly, bending lower until he nearly touched the floor. “I died to George Mueller, his opinions, preferences, tastes and will; died to the world, its approval or censure; died to the approval or blame even of my brethren and friends; and since then I have studied only to show myself approved of God.”
As Peter writes, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness” (1 Peter 2:24). The dying to self is the pathway to life, as Paul wrote to Timothy: “If we died with him, we will also live with him” (2 Timothy 2:11). So Christ’s death has huge consequences on our outlook and motivation for life. “For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again” (2 Corinthians 5:14–15).
Dying to one’s own opinions, preferences, tastes and will – and everything else Mueller talks about – is supremely costly and challenging… but so undoubtedly worth it! Count the cost today and choose well.
Lord, help me to seek to show myself approved by you alone. Amen!
Last year, 990,000 people were impacted by GLO’s work – can you help us reach a million people in the world’s hungriest nation this year? Watch the film here.
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