Direct the total energy of your powers so that you may achieve everything your election as a child of God provides; rise every time to whatever occasion may come your way...You did not do anything to achieve your salvation, but you must do something to exhibit it...Are your speech, your thinking, and your emotions evidence that you are working it "out"? If you are still the same miserable, grouchy person, set on having your own way, then it is a lie to say that God has saved and sanctified you...God will never shield you from the requirements of being His son or daughter...Rise to the occasion—do what the trial demands of you. It does not matter how much it hurts as long as it gives God the opportunity to manifest the life of Jesus in your body...May God not find complaints in us anymore, but spiritual vitality—a readiness to face anything He brings our way. The only proper goal of life is that we manifest the Son of God; and when this occurs, all of our dictating of our demands to God disappears.
Oswald Chambers - My Utmost For His Highest: May 15 Devotional
Instead of rising to the occasion, this could have easily been called stop complaining.
God calls us as His sons and daughters, and then we have a responsibility to be obedient before the Father, just as Jesus was.
We need to do so with more speed and willingness and less procrastination and complaining, just as Jesus did.
God is willing to treat us as He does His Son, He just asks that we try to act a little more like Him. Is that too much to ask given what He is willing to bestow on us, what He was willing to suffer for us.
Jesus rose to the occasion of our salvation, can we rise to the occasion of grateful obedience?
