COMPLETE

“and you are complete in Him,” (Colossians 2:10)

God has blessed us with some incredible servants of God who have proclaimed truth from the Keswick pulpit. This morning’s devotional is from REAL VICTORY FOR REAL LIFE and was written by America’s Keswick Board Member Emeritus, Dr. Eric Crichton, who served for many years as Senior Pastor at Calvary Church in Lancaster, PA.

This wonderful statement can be interpreted in two ways.  First, with reference to our standing or acceptance in the sight of a holy God.  It is a glorious truth that we are made “complete” in regard to our standing before Him.  As is often sung, “dressed in His righteousness alone, faultless to stand before the throne.”  Or as another hymn expresses this truth, “Complete in Thee! No work of mine may take, dear Lord, the place of Thine.  Thy blood has pardon bought for me and I am now complete in Thee.” That is a wonderful truth in which we greatly rejoice.  However, the text has another meaning.

The Greek word “complete” has in it the thought of “bringing to full measure” or “being made full” or “being made adequate.”  There is also the thought of “being fully established.”  So this text is suggesting that all that we need for life is in Jesus Christ.  That fullness makes us adequate for all of the will of God. It is just as Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 3:5-6a, “Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant.” The apostle Peter wrote similarly in 2 Peter 1:3-4, “as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness.”  That is, God has already given to us everything that we need for life and godliness.

Peter continues to explain that this is because we are made partakers of the divine nature.  There is nothing more that the Lord can give us than that which He has already given through the imparting of His very nature.  So, thereby, we are made adequate for whatever we may face within the will of God.  Our part is to allow the Lord to have full possession of our lives so that He may live out His total adequacy in us. Dr. Eric Crichton Praise God, my brother! You are complete in Him. Now let us purpose to live that way today. – Bill Welte is President & CEO of America’s Keswick

Team YOU: Esther 6-8; Proverbs 22; Acts 6

Motivations: Those who know nothing of the spiritual life declare that it is impossible to experience real peace and heavenly joy in this grief-stricken world. But those who have experience of the spiritual life know that just as one finds here and there in the midst of the ice fields of the polar regions flowing streams of hot water, so in the midst of this cold and sorrow-laden world there are to be found flowing in the hearts of believers restful streams of heavenly peace, for the hidden fire of the Holy Spirit glows within them. Sadhu Sundar Singh

Practice to Remember: Level 1:Philippians 1:21; Level 2: Philippians 1:19-26

Powered Up:  In order to make sure that we are not retreating from the tension of faith, it is helpful to ask ourselves as we pray, ‘Do I really expect anything to happen?’ This will prevent us from going window-shopping in prayer.” Catherine Marshall