Week 52—Tuesday 2 Corinthians 1:20, 22
2 Corinthians 1:20, 22
RESOURCES AND GUIDANCE
The second thing Jesus Christ means to me is resources. I ran for about a year after my conversion under cloudless skies, and then I ran into stormy weather. But the storms were within—deep within, from the fact of an unredeemed subconscious. My conscious mind was converted in conversion, but apparently my subconscious was not. So a crisis ensued. In that crisis I surrendered all I knew—the conscious—and all I didn’t know—the subconscious. And then something happened. When I arose from my knees, a quiet but profound joy possessed me. I knew the Holy Spirit had moved into the subconscious and had cleansed it, coordinated it with the conscious. So now conscious and subconscious were under one control—the control of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit was redemption extended to the subconscious, the applied edge of redemption—applied to the deepest urges—to self, sex, the herd. Don’t misunderstand me—these urges are still there, and can be and are the source of temptation. But they were under a new control, and, if I cooperated by surrender and obedience, the resources were adequate for life. So the second thing that Jesus Christ means to me is resources.
The third thing he means to me is guidance. My life had become, not a self- or circumstance-guided life, but a God-guided life. In all the great crises, and in the smaller crises—and more, in the daily round—I have felt a Hand not my own on the helm. Not automatically, I can still insist on my way, can take the helm myself—and pay the penalty. But God never leaves me and takes over again, with my penitent consent, when I’m about to go on the rocks. And I’ve found it profoundly true, in the words of a group, “Where God guides, God provides.”
O Son of God, we’re grateful that we need not fumble and stumble through life. Your superior wisdom is at our disposal, and your trustable love will never let us go. We are not at loose ends and a pattern is being woven. I thank you. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: He who redeemed my life will guide my life—I shall not falter nor fail—he remembers and he has resources.