ASSIMILATION

John 4:34—“My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to finish His work.”

We must make a conscious effort to move beyond what we know to what we do. There is a subtle contempt among many believers for Biblical truth. This contempt is expressed by the phrase—"You can’t tell me anything I haven’t already heard." What is meant is—"I know what I’m supposed to do whether I choose to do anything is not your concern!" This is nothing less than pride. God resists the proud—James 4:6. Don’t let this happen to you! How can we avoid becoming smugsters (self-righteous know-it-alls), and be the truth-assimilators God desires?

1. Recognize that without humility truth is framed in a black and white sketch called Dogma. The Kingdom of Heaven is not advanced by intellect but rather by what we become and do with what we know.

2. Ask God to enable us to assimilate the truth His Holy Spirit reveals in our daily living. Assimilation is defined as "the conversion of nutriments into living tissue." Our Lord came so that we could become living tissue—holy, God-pleasing, gospel-revealing saints.

Inspiration

Food is not health, and truth is not holiness. Food has to be assimilated before the result is health, and truth must be assimilated by the child of God before it can be manifested as holiness. We may be looking at the right doctrines and yet not assimilating the truths which the doctrines reveal.—Oswald Chambers in Grow Up Into Him