My Life: My Teaching, or Christ Himself?
By Mike Rule

God is always speaking to me about something and challenging the way that I see things. I also have to face that fact that my judgments reveal more about me than they ever reveal about the one I judge.

I have been around many people who live and breathe their specific messages: Christ as life, the deeper life, the exchanged life, the abiding life, etc. There is tremendous zeal and fervor to tell everyone the good news that Christ wants to live through us. But a lesser must always give way to a greater. If my teaching, counseling and ministry were all taken away, would Jesus be enough for me? If He chose to take away all that your life is wrapped up in, would HE alone be enough for you? I have to be honest and say that I’m not so sure that He would be for me.

As I continue on the path God has me walking, I find that I care less all the time about whether people believe what I have to say or not. Yes, I grieve when I see people struggling, but I know that their belief counts more than what I say. Aside from that, there is nothing in it for me personally if they believe or reject the truth.

Yet as I face the issue of surrendering my ministry and going back to my former life and the auto industry, it seems more than I can bear. I am afraid I would be suicidal. I cannot go back but must press onward toward the goal because He who has called is faithful.

Mentally, I understand that losing the ministry would not be that big of a deal because I know with confidence that whatever God would have in the future would be ultimately even better. But as I wrestle with these issues, it is my fervent prayer that the role of teaching that Christ is our very life would never become my life. May Christ Himself always be my life, and may He have His way with me and in me no matter how much I gravitate to something lesser. Christ is my life, and my life is hidden with Christ in God. Amen!

Verses for Reflection

He who finds his life shall lose it. And he who loses his life for My sake shall find it. Matthew 10:39

For whoever will save his life shall lose it, but whoever will lose his life for My sake, he shall save it. For what is a man profited if he gains the whole world and loses himself, or is cast away? Luke 9:24, 25

For you died, and your life has been hidden with Christ in God. When Christ our Life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory. Colossians 3:3,4

Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. Jude 1:21