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In our Christian life for God's purpose, we need to pass through the process of renewing—a process that involves suffering—Rom. 8:17-18; 2 Cor. 1:7; 4:10-11, 17; 1 Pet. 4:13; 5:9:
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We are destined to suffer so that we may be renewed; all sufferings are the process to make us new—Col. 1:24; Phil. 1:29; 2 Cor. 1:6; 4:17.
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All the sufferings that God has assigned to us have one unique purpose—to renew us—Rom. 12:2; Eph. 4:23; Titus 3:5.
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The sufferings that we pass through are a process to transfer us from the realm of the old creation to the realm of the new creation—2 Cor. 5:17.
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The suffering that we pass through to be renewed does not compare with the glory of our being new—4:17-18; Rom. 8:18.
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As we pass through afflictions, there needs to be a continual renewing taking place in us day by day so that God can accomplish His heart's desire—2 Cor. 4:16-17; Eph. 1:4-5, 9, 11-12.
Morning Nourishment
Rom. 8:17-18 …If…we suffer with Him…we may also be glorified with Him. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the coming glory to be revealed upon us.Titus 3:5 Not out of works in righteousness which we did but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit.
We may be good saints in the church who have been kept and preserved by the Lord, but have we been renewed with the divine element? Is there some renewing going on with us, or are we remaining the same day by day and year after year? It would be tragic if we would pass through many sufferings and still remain the same. In order to consummate His renewing work in us and with us, God becomes our life and nature within. In addition to this, God as the sovereign Lord controls the entire universe in order to renew us. God uses the environment in order to work His life and nature into us. Without the environment, we could never be renewed. We would remain the same. (CWWL, 1989, vol. 2, “Being Renewed DAY by Day,” p. 358)
Today’s Reading
God desires to renew us….We may be the most right persons and still be the most old persons. We may be strong in our habit and strong in what we are. God’s intention is not merely to chastise or correct us but to use the outward environment to trouble us, to remind us, and to wake us up to realize that we have God as our nature, yet we do not live Him according to His nature. We possess Him for our enjoyment, but we do not live Him as our nature.Do we discipline our children according to God’s nature? We may discipline them according to our disposition, our being, and our habit. God, therefore, uses the environment to put us into “prison.” Then we are reminded to pray, and the eventual outcome of our prayer is not merely that we get corrected but that we get renewed…. Formerly, we disciplined our children with ourselves, by ourselves, and in ourselves….Now God is in our disciplining of our children, and our disciplining them becomes a human-divine disciplining. The father is doing the disciplining, yet his disciplining is the divine disciplining because it is full of God. God is in it. God uses the outward environment in which we suffer to renew us.
We are renewed by the addition of God into our being, by having more of the divine element added into our being…. The real Christian life is to have God added into us morning and evening and day by day. The problem today is that people do everything without God. What God cares for is that His chosen ones would learn to cooperate with Him by allowing Him to be added into them day by day. God is daily being added to us for the purpose of metabolically transforming us….This new element is God Himself, and the old element is us.
Our God is daily waiting for a chance to add Himself into all of us. If we would give Him the opportunity and the opening, He will add Himself into our being as the new element, not merely to correct us but to replace us, to renew us. Sometimes God may allow the church to pass through a “storm.” God may allow this “storm” to occur because He wants us to be renewed. The tragic thing is that while we are suffering in the “storm,” we would remain the same with no renewing. I hope that we will consider this matter. We have to pray, “Lord, I don’t want to remain the same. I do not want to remain the same this year as I was last year. I want to be renewed day by day.” God’s intention is for us to be renewed day by day. In order to be renewed, we need the new addition of God into us daily. Daily we need to contact God, open ourselves up to Him, and let Him come into us to be a new addition into us day by day. (CWWL, 1989, vol. 2, “Being Renewed DAY by Day,” pp. 358-361)
Further Reading: CWWL, 1991-1992, vol. 1, “The Central Line of the Divine Revelation,” chs. 11, 23-24