The Perfect Example
by Robin Tyler
‘The White Horse’ is a coffee table book I bought a few years ago. I bring it out occasionally to display. On the cover and inside the book are many beautiful photos of a white horse with a long flowing mane. Revelation 19:11-16, speaking of Jesus returning on a white horse, is symbolic. However, my love of horses likes to imagine Jesus actually returning riding on a beautiful white horse. When Jesus does return, what a sight it will be!! In this life we need to always be alert and preparing for that day (Matthew 24:42). Jesus will come again.
“When Christ shall come, with shout of acclamation,
And take me home, what joy shall fill my heart.
Then I shall bow, in humble adoration,
And then proclaim: ‘My God, how great Thou art!’”
God created us with a body, a soul and a Spirit, thereby giving us freedom to choose Him as our Savior and as our Lord. He is a good God giving us freedom to choose. The choices we make while we are here matters. His place as Lord of our life is not assigned by Him, but rather determined our choices. Submitting to Him, dying to self, we accept His reign over our life as our Lord. We are transformed (2 Corinthians 3:16-18).
When we speak of God’s love, mercy, and grace many times it is expressed in the context of His goodness to us, but God’s love, mercy, and grace also shows up and shines brightest when life is the hardest and does not feel so good. Choosing to apply the three attributes of love, mercy and grace, and putting them in our own toolbox as the Holy Spirit works in and through us, is an expression of dying to self when applied in situations we find ourselves not wanting to show love, mercy or grace. There are many other attributes of God we are called to put on. My personal battle to show God’s attributes, and be like Jesus, is hardest when the evil one fills my head with doubt, fear, worry or despair.
Jesus’s life is a perfect example of dying to self. It was not easy. He taught in an environment of ridicule and angry mobs. He preached in the presence of those who hated Him the most. He went out of His way to heal the sick and hurting where prejudices were strong. He encouraged others. He loved His disciples even when they turned their backs on Him. Jesus lived a life fully submitted to the will of His Father dying to self, even to death on the cross, to fulfill what God called Him to do for you and for me.
It is with the gift of the Holy Spirit, given to us at salvation, God can reign as Lord of our life as we submit to what He calls us to do. (Zechariah 4:6 ...‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty.) It is not by our muscle or our brain we live a life submitted and obedient to God. It is by the Spirit. It’s a supernatural thing we cannot do on our own.
Discipling others comes at a cost. The cost is death to self. In this broken world we live we have family, friends, children at church, neighbors, ladies in our youth groups, people at the grocery store, women at the doctors office, and others that need to experience our death to self in action. They need prayed for, encouraged, taught Biblical truth, loved, read to, taken a casserole, or perhaps introduced to Jesus. Billy Graham once said, “Salvation is free, but discipleship costs everything we have.”
At Jesus’s death the crowd thought He was dead. Physically he did die, but He did not stay dead. Spiritually Jesus was always very much alive. To this world when we die to self we might appear dead, weak or insignificant. The world cannot see or understand the things of the Spirit. What happens in the Spiritual is much more important than what happens in the physical. Spiritual choices determine what happens in our physical world.
Spiritual choices affect the things we think, say and do. God revealed to Paul the correct perspective we should have in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.
Our submitting to Him, dying to self, accepting His reign over our life as our Lord is an on going daily transforming work of sanctification. It’s a lifelong beautiful process, which is not often easy. We are being prepared for that day in Revelation 19:11-16 when Jesus comes riding on that white horse! Giddy-up let’s go!
We may not understand why God is calling us to do certain things. Trust His heart. Trust His Word that reveals His heart.
Prayer: Father, when you call, help me remember Jesus.
Galatians 2:20
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
