LIVING WATERS
For the proclamation of the Gospel and the edification of the Body of Christ
The Divine Aspect of Consecration
Before the believer is consecrated, God attracts us toward Him.
Eliseo Apablaza
Consecration is the believer's response of love toward the love of God. At some time during his walk in the faith, he reacts by offering himself to God for His holy service. When seen in this way, consecration is about man's acting toward God.
However, the believer's consecration is not simply man's concern, but also God's. The consecration of a man or woman begins much before, in God's own heart. From man's point of view it is he who draws near to God; from God's point of view, it is He who attracts man. Therefore, in this sense, consecration is the action by which God chooses certain men and attracts them toward Himself so that they may serve Him.
Man's part to play therefore not only follows on after first receiving the love of God, but also after God's election. If consecration were based exclusively on what man does for God, it would be a very weak and insecure thing, but as it is based on the irrevocable election of God, it is steadfast.
If we see the love of God, we might possibly consecrate ourselves; but if God catches us in His net of love, there won't be any escape, and then our consecration will be definitive. Who could escape from this net? We wouldn't just say we were caught "by this love", but "by this net".
This regards to the origin of our consecration, but what can we say about its end?
If consecration depended exclusively on the man who is consecrated, it would not reach its goal. It is God's perseverance and not man's good disposition that makes these things reach their end. If it had not been for God's persistence, Abraham would have remained halfway between Ur and Canaan, in Haran for the rest of his days. If it had not been for God's persistence, Moses would have been left lying in the desert, or in that lodging-place of blood regretting the failure of his task which had only recently begun. It is God's perseverance, and not man's solvency, which has taken all the great divine actions of history onward.
On the way to consecration, there are many days of silence, days of failure in which it seems that God has forgotten us or that He has gotten tired of bearing with us. It doesn't mean that God has discarded us; despite how it seems. In those moments, God stops us so that it remains clear in our hearts that the work isn't more important than the Lord; that He has not made us as something indispensable in His House, and that things can go on very well without us.
Consecration is not an impulsive, careless race, without pauses or without obstacles, but rather it is a way which is sometimes joyous, and sometimes a "valley of the shadow of death", which we can only pass through thanks to the "rod and staff" of the Shepherd.
Thus consecration in its beginning, its development and its end, is marked by the grace, faithfulness and wonderful perseverance of God.
This doesn't mean that man does not offer himself, when conquered by the love of God; when touched by the Cross' sacrifice. Man has his part, and it is a very important one. What we want to emphasize is the divine aspect of consecration; that which gives stability to what we begin when encouraged by His love. It is God who will perfect the work that He began in us (Phil.1:6). It is by His strength that we are established; it is by His grace that we have a service in His house today.
Our promises are not as firm as His election and grace
All those who have made promises to God before at some time have probably been culprits of failing to live up to them. The words "everything that you ask, I will do" are as pretentious as they were coming from the mouth of Israel next to Sinai. And they are as likely to fail as on that occasion. Initial consecration, full of joy and expectation, usually turns into disappointment and failure soon after, when realizing that we don't have the capability to complete the promises of our consecration.
But that is where the opportune help comes; which shows us, on the one hand, the fragility of our good intentions, the uselessness of our efforts, and on the other, the sufficiency of God and His unfading grace.
There is nothing better than knowing the stability of Lord's arm, with which He has taken hold of us. There is nothing better than knowing the wonderful election of God, long before our very first cry, with which God has enriched us. There is no surer refuge against the whirlwind of our fragile emotions and feelings, and against the continuous fainting of the soul than that persistent divine grace. It is the safeguard of our consecration. It is the bolt upon seven locks which protects our soul from the ephemeral desires of fleeing which so often overtake us.
It is true, we consecrate ourselves because we are not our own, and because the love of God constrains us. But we also consecrate ourselves because God hunted us down, because His finger of mercy pointed us out so that we might carry His blessed name. The cords with which we were attracted to Him are so hefty that nothing can cut them, and His affection, fastened in our heart, can never be erased.
If we didn't know that His mouth pronounced our name in a time and space very distant from now, before our mouth could open up to pronounce His name, nothing would have sustained us this far. We would have been left a long way back on the way, like prey soon to be devoured.
Therefore, blessed was the day that our heart returned to him in gratitude, in a delicate offering of love; but even more blessed was the moment in which we were attracted by God toward Himself so that we might be His forever. That day, the success of our consecration and of our service was sealed.