Devotional

Here at Penn View, our Dean of Students  and Academic Dean have recently started having the students divide into small groups for one chapel each month. I was asked to head one of these groups. Speaking to groups of any kind has a tendancy to make me rather nervous. And seeing as I am also a very busy mom I am ashamed to say, but I tried to get out of this privilege. I thought that my husband would do a much better job, and that he should be the one to lead this group.

However, I found out that this was not going to be an option seeing as Mr. Davis had already divided up the student body into gender specific groups.....SO I was "stuck":)

With a flurry of preperation and some frantic prayers, off I went to my first gathering.

Well, the Lord really was with us and He really encouraged my heart as I tried to minister to the girls in my group. I feel as if I need to thank the Lord for once again stretching me and helping me to expand my horizons and discover new privileges in Him.

Though the following devotional is specifically talking about seeking for a sanctified heart, I think that it can also be very encouraging and challenging to the sanctified. For it reminds us to never quit going forward, and to never take the gift off of the altar. Sanctification is definitely just the catalyst to the sanctified life. It is a definite start to a beautiful journey.

Matthew 5:6 "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness; for they shall be filled."

If in our souls we find a deep hunger for holiness- if our hearts cry, "Lord Jesus, I long to be perfectly whole,: we are already on the road to the deeper life of God in the soul. But that desire must be deep and moving- true hungering and thirsting after righteousness. Only those who seek with all the heart find the fullness of God.

This must be so because entire consecration involves life-changing commitments. Into our consecration we must put everything that is nearest and everyone who is dearest to us. If we are to belong wholly to God, he must always have first place in our lives. He does not always take from us the things that we consecrate to Him; He does not always sever the ties of friendship that we place in His hands. He does not always take or sever but He always asks, "May I, if I see it is best?" And before we are sanctified wholly we must honestly and without mental reservation answer yes.

This is why our desire must be deep and moving. This is why we must want the Holy Spirit more than anything else in life. If our desire is faint, we are likely to come up against some obstacle and cannot go further. But if our soul hunger is deep and strong, it carries us past the hindrance.

I would this day make the prayer of Charles Wesley the prayer of my own heart;

Stretch my faith's capacity

Wider, and yet wider still;

Then with all that is in Thee

My soul forever fill!

-Wesley's Hymns