"Someone, Somewhere Else" Part 2

When our sorrows and sufferings lead us to offer ourselves to God for His glory and the blessing of others, the Lord Jesus Christ once again walks in the world - in us.

"I will dwell in them and walk in them" (II Corinthians 6:16).

Apart from our Savior, we possess no loving altruism that could make such otherness possible. Left to itself, human flesh is a black hole drawing all things unto itself for its own benefit. Thus, the notion of our personal difficulties becoming the basis for the comfort of others would never cross our minds or hearts apart from the indwelling Spirit of Christ and the Word of God. Only God possesses within Himself such sublime beauty of character, nature, and disposition. Again, however, when He lives in us, we find ourselves led and enabled to "walk, even as He walked" (I John 2:6). Our pains, our wounds, our losses, and our tears serve to alert us to something our Lord purposes to do in us for "someone, somewhere else."

"Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us" (Psalm 90:17). Unto a human race steeped in self centeredness and its rotten and poisonous fruits, God offers to us the gift of Himself and the fruit of the Holy Spirit. He offers to us the possibility of experiencing unselfish devotion to others, perhaps best revealed when in our difficulties we become a bright sun of love rather than a black hole of selfishness. The Lord Jesus is "the beauty of the Lord our God," and He is "upon us" as we walk by faith and submission to His working in us.

"How can God be glorified in this challenge? Who can be blessed as we pray and offer ourselves to God for the benefit of others as our sorrows become the basis of their joy?" Only the Lord Jesus thinks this way, and only the river of His heart flows away from itself and unto the needs of others. However, He thinks such thoughts in us by the Holy Spirit, and we find ourselves thinking accordingly as we walk with Him. Our Lord is greatly known and revealed in such goodness, and all glory flows to His throne of grace. "Not I, but Christ" is our testimony of that Love not only revealed to us, but in us (Galatians 2:20).

"We have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him."

(I John 4:16)