The triple crown of discipleship

Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing. 2 Timothy 4:8

To long for His appearing




Its a great thing to be able to look at the blessings of God in our midst and say, WOW! This is awesome. Sure, its quite another to see God at work and admit that change, repentence and growth are needed too. But when both of those things merge together in my life and I see that God is working out His purposes through repentence, growth, and blessing, the results are a divine recipe for effecting eternal change that will lead me to long for my reward: The appearing of Christ. As a disciple of Jesus, I have to admit that I've been following Him as one who sees Him through spiritual eyes. Sure, I can see His face in the face of the innocent, and watch His hands at work as His people reach out to love the unlovely; and yet I desire to one day see Him face to face. So for now, to keep my vision clear and unobstructed, I need to submit to the active ministry of the Holy Spirit as He leads me into times of self awareness that reveal selfish desires that must go. This time is bittersweet as my old self, old ways, old comforts die off and the new creation life of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17) grows up within me. I see three things at work in this process: Repentance, growth and blessing-the triple crown of discipleship.

I need to be reliant upon the Holy Spirit to convict and correct me in areas where I need to grow; Growth is the result of obedience to the Holy Spirit's work in my life; And blessing is the opportunity to experience the fruit of God's work in our lives.





Pretty simple, right? Not really. The entire process is dependent upon my willingness to submit to the work God is desiring to accomplish within me and often this work can be quite uncomfortable and sometimes painful. This morning as I was reading Oswald Chambers this one passage just stuck with me:





It is the sick person who really knows what health is. A child of God is not aware of the will of God because he is the will of God. When we have deviated even slightly from the will of God, we begin to ask, "Lord, what is your will?" A child of God never prays to be made aware of the fact that God answers prayer, because he is so restfully certain that God always answers prayer.





Lord, help me to become so restfully unaware of Your will. Not because of disobedience, nor out of disrespect, but out of a heart that knows nothing else but to do what I know to do as led by the very Spirit of God. Amen.