Published on 07/26/2006

To be free from worry, Thomas Kelly encourages us to take these steps. First, invite Christ into your soul. Ask him to forgive your sin and become your Savior. He cannot give us his peace unless he lives in our hearts.

Commentary

To be free from worry, Thomas Kelly (A Testament of Devotion...see yesterday's essay) encourages us to take these steps. First, invite Christ into your soul. Ask him to forgive your sin and become your Savior. He cannot give us his peace unless he lives in our hearts.

Second, learn to practice his presence every day. Jesus is calling us to a deeper level where we experience his peace each moment of each day. How do we live on this deeper level? Kelly continues: "By quiet, persistent practice in turning of all our being, day and night, in prayer and inward worship and surrender, toward Him who calls in the deeps of our souls" (p. 15).

We turn our thoughts to God constantly. We pray to him with brief phrases all through the day. We seek his word in our minds and hearts. As we walk in his presence, we find that he prays for us and through us. We find ourselves carried along by his Spirit. We sense ourselves in his peace.

Third, disown yourself. Kelly continues: "It is just this astonishing life that is willing . . . sincerely to disown itself, this life that intends complete obedience, without any reservations, that I would propose to you in all humility, in all boldness, in all seriousness. I mean this literally, utterly, completely, and I mean it for you and for me--commit your lives in unreserved obedience to Him" (pp. 24-25, italics his).

How? Begin where you are. Obey what you know to obey from God today. Surrender what you know to surrender. Confess what you know to confess. As best you can today, give up rights to your own ambitions, dreams, hopes. Put them into God's hands. Trust that the One whose Son died for you, the One who knows the future you cannot see, will guide your life better than you can.

Ask him to guide your next step, to reveal your next decision, to use your life for his purposes. When you sense yourself taking your life back, give it again. When you take it back, give it again. Time after time after time. Disown yourself.

And here's what you'll experience: "self-renunciation means God-possession, the being possessed by God" (p. 31). Here is the key to the power of God. It is the key to the peace and presence of God. It is the key to the life you seek this morning. We'll continue to seek that life tomorrow.