“You need to remember that I am making you into the image of Jesus as you requested. Every trial strengthens you. Every need brings you closer to Me. Every heartbreak brings forth My comfort, and allows you to see that your only hope is in Me. I will never fail you. I am trustworthy. I am for you. You must make Me your only source as Jesus did. Then you will be at peace. His heart knew truth. His heart was single-purposed, as I need yours to be. Stay the course. I am with you!”

Amos 5:4b AMP

…Seek Me [inquire for and of Me and require Me as you require food] and you shall live!

Matthew 16:24-25 AMP

24) Then Jesus said to His disciples, If anyone desires to be My disciple, let him deny himself [disregard, lose sight of, and forget himself and his own interests] and take up his cross and follow Me [cleave steadfastly to Me, conform wholly to My example in living and, if need be, in dying, also].

25) For whoever is bent on saving his [temporal] life [his comfort and security here] shall lose it [eternal life]; and whoever loses his life [his comfort and security here] for My sake shall find it [life everlasting].

John 5:19-20a NIV

19) Jesus gave them this answer: “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.

20a) For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does.”

That “nothing by myself” part is hard for us to understand. It is even harder for us to walk in it daily as Jesus did. We forget that the obedience needs to be formed in us before we can be truly obedient to the Lord’s every command. Absolute trust needs to be “owned” by us before we are even willing to attempt that “nothing” stuff. In fact, all the character traits of Jesus must one-by-one be formed in us before we can walk in them.

We will never “own” trust until we have desperately needed the Lord and found Him faithful. Obedience is formed in us through repentance of the self-will that is so very evident in us daily. I am convinced that until we embrace our lives as the training ground and “Jesus school” that they really are, we will never be at peace.

Open my eyes to Your work in me, Lord,

Jim Corbett