Matthew 7:13-14
"Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it."
Do you ever notice how the longer you live on earth the more aware you are of the pain?
It's like, I'm thankful Lord for the beautiful earth you made but how can I enjoy it when sin smothers it in darkness. I know our journey on earth is to loose ourselves our "righteousness, our glory, our kingdom our pride our significance" because we really have none of this without Christ's life in us, but the journey to find this out isn't a pleasant one.
When I ask for Christ to be revealed in my life more and more, I've noticed the path get smaller and smaller forcing me to recognize I don't have the power to help myself, or the power or talent or anything to even contribute. It's all Christ's strength, significance, authority, life, in me that gets us home. There is no life without death first. The life we really want calls for us to loose our life first. Just as a seed has to die in order to release life giving enzymes to create the tree inside it, I too have to die to myself, to my own understanding and desires and will to release Jesus in me to give me life to bear fruit and live fully in Him.
When I look back on my journey with God I see myself standing at the "narrow gate" the moment I surrendered my life to Christ. It is here that I left my will, my life, my desires for His because those
things will not fit on this path. As time passes my desire is to continue to follow so I shed the things I thought were important for survival. Nothing fits on the path but Jesus and me.
I continually shed the things of this world, and surrender my will for His.
Now that I have a free hand Jesus grasps it and continues to lead me through.
The path that I call life on earth starts to get dark and I'm thankful He has my hand.
There comes a time on this journey when I'm faced with trouble in marriage or financial burdens or illness. It is here that I no longer have anything physical to shed. I'm now crouching my way along,
there is nothing left to drop except what I'm carrying inside. I'm on my knees, I have no strength of my own.
It is at this point that I die to myself and shed my pride. Lord I cannot go on with the weight in my soul of pride and selfishness, I cannot survive without your life in me, your strength in my marriage, your
wisdom and grace in my financial burdens and your healing in my illness. I surrender my death, my
sinful dieing self, for your life in me.
There is a lot of baggage of sin in my flesh so this journey takes as long as it takes to dump it and
realize it's all about His life, His will, His love and goodness not mine. I have nothing.
I notice the path seems to get tighter and narrower the longer I'm on it and yet the more I follow Jesus the more the light shinning from Jesus glory reflects off me.
I'm pressed in with nowhere to look but at Christ and I see my future in Him.
I have no glory, I have no wealth, I have no talent, I have no purpose, I have no plan, I have no hope, I have no sin....He took all of it and replaced it with Him.
In Him I am royalty, I am an heir and co-ruler with Christ. I am powerful with the power of all mighty
God, I am cherished and loved, I am all of these things because of Christ's life in me the hope of glory!
I'm looking forward to being fully surrendered, knowing I have nothing to offer so we can finish the
long narrow gate called life on earth and enter our final destination! His kingdom where He has called me daughter.
"God works in us, Christ moved into us and is our life, and the Holy Spirit makes the things of God and Jesus not only reasonable but also doable in His power." ~ mike wells
I totally agree that the longer we live, the more we become aware of truly how powerless we are.
ReplyDeleteThere's a fairy tale solution that we want to believe about ourselves, that, eventually we get the power to solve all these problems. And we can feel good about our efforts and contribution to the sorrows of fellow man.
The problem is we see ourselves as part of the solution, instead of keeping our eyes on the only One who has the solution. Jesus is the solution whether we see it or not. He has the power to do all that we want him to do, even though we don't see results the way we want.
We will never be the solution.
However, I don't think we need to find that to be depressing, but a maturing and relieving thought. We can stop working and start resting in Him.
It's the strange mystery that at that point in our journey, when we remove ourselves from the equation, THEN Jesus begins working some incredible things in and through us! It's at a point where you no longer care that you're the hands He chose, that He starts to use yours.
xoxo