"NOT YOUR OWN."
Whilst the believer values the whole Bible, there are portions that are particularly precious, due to the Lord speaking through them at great personal crises. "Ye are not your own," is such an one in the experience of the author. A few years after his conversion, due to lack of training, and to the worldly Church atmosphere he had to breathe, he became cold and worldly. Becoming thoroughly ashamed of himself, and very, very dissatisfied, he felt that a decision must be made that very evening, and upon reaching his lodgings, and retiring early, immediately he had locked the bedroom door, he fell upon his knees in penitential confession of worldliness and sin, asking for the Lord’s forgiveness, but pleading for something additional and deeper, if so be such a mercy was in the Divine programme for him in Christ. Whilst confessing and pleading with the Lord, a voice whispered very clearly, "Ye are not your own." Immediately he responded, "Why, of course I am not my own," whereupon the fire of God fell, and he was blessedly conscious of a very, very real inward work of cleansing, renewal, and the filling of the Holy Spirit, and his life has never been the same since. Has the reader ever acknowledged to the Lord that he or she does not belong to any other than the Lord who has saved them?
Ponder over this sentence written by the late Dr. Handley Moule: "He saved us to annex us." Note, He has saved us not that we should do as we please, but to annex us! There are three questions we must ask and answer:
I. Why Am I Not My Own? There are four good reasons why we are not our own.
1. Presentation. We have been given by God the Father to God the Son. "I have manifested Thy Name unto the men which Thou gavest Me out of the world. Thine they were, and Thou gavest them Me" (Joh_17:6). Jesus Christ was and is God’s love-gift to the world, and believers are the Father’s love-gift to Jesus Christ.
2. Purchase. We have been bought, and, oh, what a price! "For ye are bought with a price" (1Co_6:20). Dr. Moule has a fine word on this: "We are the bought property of our Saviour, bought altogether for His ends."
3. Possession. We have not only been purchased by the Lord, but we are already possessed by Him and the Holy Spirit. "Your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost" (1Co_6:19).
4. Preservation. Some of us have had serious illnesses, when, humanly speaking, our lives were despaired of, and medical attendants gave us up. But the Lord has raised us up, and lengthened our days. What for? Surely we cannot but look upon our lives as specially sacred.
II. What Obligations does this Fact Impose upon Me?
1. We must Not Remain the Slaves of Men. That is the teaching of 1Co_7:23. If we belong to Him, we become His servants’ and slaves, and no longer governed by worldly maxims and fashions.
It is possible to be truly the Lord’s, and yet not to be wholly the Lord’s. We are apt to say that what we have is our own, and we can do as we like with our own. But the Bible says otherwise: "The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof." Being the slaves of the Lord, we must not remain the slaves of sin; slaves to the opinions of men; or slaves to fashions or earthly standards.
2. We Must Glorify God (1Co_6:20). We must glorify God in our bodies-our outside deportment and life; our spirits-the inside and hidden life.
III. What Results will Follow such an Acknowledgment?
1. Cleansing. Someone handed Miss Frances Ridley Havergal a tract entitled "All for Jesus." The reading of it awakened such an interest that she wrote to the author for further light. He replied by giving her two hints: 1st, All is to be laid on the altar-Christ. 2nd, All thus laid on Christ is cleansed.
She put this advice into practice, and then she wrote: "One of the intensest moments of my life was when I saw the force of that word, ‘cleanseth.’ "First, I was shown that the ‘Blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.’ And then it was made plain to me that He who had thus cleansed me had power to keep me clean, so I just yielded myself to Him, and utterly trusted Him to keep me. I see it all; and I have the blessing. The utterly unexpected and altogether unimagined sense of its fulfilment in me on simply believing it in its fulness was just indescribable. I expected nothing like it short of Heaven. It is very simple-all yielded to God, and all thus yielded cleansed by the ever present efficiency of the all-atoning Blood."
Miss Havergal was never the same afterwards. Her life became enriched, and most of her great usefulness’ dates from this experience.
2. Filling in the Holy Spirit. Remember that under the Old Covenant fire only fell upon sacrifices. If I dedicate myself to Him, surrendering myself fully to Him, upon such a living sacrifice the fire of the Holy Spirit will most assuredly fall.
3. At Every Step of the Pilgrim Journey we shall Consult our Owner. Day by day our prayer will be: "Lord, what will Thou have me to do?"
"Not my own! my time, my talents.
Freely all to Christ I bring.
To be used in joyful service.
For the glory of my King."
Autor: James Smith