Values and vitality

This is something I had the chance to read a couple of days back…
It really spoke to me… cause so often I wonder what I can do for Jesus and get so caught up in my own plans and ideas… and at the end of the day – I’m almost burned out!
So… the answer ‚Not I – but Christ!‘ really… hurts!
I have to think of this song ‚All that I am, all that I have…‘
Hm… anyways! Here’s the article (what do you guys think of it?):

‚Dependence on God does not come without struggles.
I think we all have our own interpretation of what this means or what it
does not mean. From childhood on, I have known a voice inside of me that
says, „I am old enough, I can do this“ or „I cannot and will not do
this.“ This is my ‚Declaration of Independence‘ and has often gotten me into trouble while trying to ’serve God.‘ Dependence on God does not come without
struggles. We can proclaim the victories of our faith, the results of
our dependence on God in public on stage, but the battle of being at His disposal, of living a life in dependence on God, is fought in the privacy of our hearts.
Let my share a story as recorded in Charles Price, Alive in Christ, page
123: Luis Palau, known throughout the world for his evangelistic ministry in
our own day, records in his autobiography (The Luis Palau Story) the time he
came to the end of his own resources and discovered Jesus Christ to be
all that he had been trying to be on his own. Recalling the content of a
message given by Major Ian Thomas to students in Portland, Oregon, he
writes: „Thomas told of many Christian workers who failed at first because
they thought they had something to offer God. I thought, ‚That’s
exactly my situation. I am at the end of myself.‘ When Ian Thomas closed with Galatians 2:20, it all came together.
‚I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but
Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me‘ (RSV). You can’t imagine the complete release I felt as a result of that little chapel talk. Years of searching had come to an end. . . . My biggest spiritual struggle was finally over. I would let God be God and Luis Palau be dependent on Him. I ran back to my room in tears and fell to my knees next to my bunk. I prayed: ‚Lord, now I get it, I understand. The whole thing is „not I, but Christ in me.“ It is not what I’m going to do for you, but rather what You’re going to do through me.“ Later Palau adds: ‚Our inner resources are God Himself, because of our union with Jesus Christ. He wanted me not to depend on myself, but on Christ alone, the indwelling, resurrected, almighty Lord Jesus.‘ Our inner resources are God Himself, because of our union
with Jesus Christ.
I know of no other preacher who lived out and proclaimed this message
of utter dependence on the Lord Jesus Christ more clearly and passionately
than Major Ian Thomas. In his last book, published in 2006, (The Indwelling
Life of Christ, page 8) he writes: „The utmost need in every ministry group,
every missionary outreach, every denomination, is to rediscover the Lord
Jesus Christ and the indispensability of His indwelling presence within the
believer. This means encountering the risen living Lord who shares His Life
with us on earth on our way to heaven. . . .“
Vitality in ministry comes by sticking to our value of dependence on God
and the union we have with the risen, living Lord Jesus.‘
By Bernhard Triebel, VDM Missionary in Japan

PS: VDM is the organization I work with! 🙂