This year has been one of the best years of my life, but also the most rough. All year I had been praying over and over, God what do you want me to do? Where can I go? I want to do big things, I want to go somewhere extravagant, I want to dream big... But what shall I do, where shall I go & what should I dream about? I felt so confused and lost in my own desire to see his will be done... I guess thats a good place to be in, but its really hard. I've felt so anxious about what I'm supposed to do, where to go and how to get there and stuff. I feel like im blindfolded, and like God doesn't see my uncertainty or hear my questions, but I know he does, and He is completely & always faithful, I just wasn't feeling like that all school year. But could it be that He is always with us, always holding our hand, and always trying to lead us, but we just get so caught up in our selfish thoughts, circumstances, fears and our own striving, that we dont realize Jesus right there wanting a simple reliance on Him? Could it be that sometimes He takes us through deeper waters of uncertainty and stuff so that we may learn to trust the only One worth trusting? I think we go through tough things, and seasons of uncertainty sometimes so that we realize our inability to do anything right and begin to put our trust in Him, living under this Grace He has freely given. This Grace...ahh, this beautiful Grace that when we come to our end and realize our total weakness, He is strong and can be glorified all the more. "But he said to me,“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong." (2 Cor. 12:9-10)
Grace calls us out of our sin, and failures and into His righteousness. Its so mind-blowing when we stop trying to figure out things or do things right, and just quit trying to do anything in our own efforts. We've got to give up. Give up on our striving. We shouldn't try to make our selves right. Jesus did that. We shouldn't have to strive. Jesus did that. So we REST. We rest completely in the finished work of Jesus Christ. Now that is ALL the FULFILLMENT we EVER NEED. If your going to strive, strive to rest. Hah. When we rest in the finished work, the fruit of the spirit is enabled in our lives. The more we focus on Jesus, instead of ourselves, the more the fruit of the Spirit leads our actions. & the more we naturally want to love, serve and simply live like Jesus. It is no longer striving to do so, but it is just an outflow of our reliance and appreciation for the Grace of God in our lives. I recently started thinking okay, I've heard enough of this grace stuff, i get it... Im going to rely on His grace.... But I just found myself so burdened and worn out all the time, with nothing to pour out to him or others. Its because I took my eyes off Jesus, and was so focused on myself and how I can be a better person, how I can get better at praying for people, better at obeying Him, better at hearing His voice, being more diligent in reading and praying... and so on. Self righteousness. No. All that is great, we've all got to get better at all that, no duh. Were human, we cant get it right in our own efforts. So why waste your time, constantly evaluating yourself. Jesus did one final evaluation: we are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. Thats whats up. Think of all of the principles and lessons and things in the Bible as an encouragement that when your focus is on Jesus, on grace, they will flow out of your revelation of His grace and into your daily living! You won't have to strive to live that way. That is so wonderful. What a gift! Goodness gracious. Jesus became our sin (without performance and deeds) , so that we could become His righteousness (without performance and deeds!!!) Ahhh. On the cross, Jesus was treated like the worlds greatest sinner, so that we would be treated like we're the best thing in the universe! THANK YOU JESUS. <3 It is so wonderful. We are just so blessed. Goodness gracious.
You can either try to live by your own efforts trying to please Jesus. Or live in total gratitude, knowing you'll never measure up but it doesn't matter because He already "measured us up", and out of that gratitude and rest shall flow the fruit of the spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control) without having to strive!
Ephesians 1:3
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. 4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace 8 that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, 9 he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, 10 to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment —to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.
...(Eph 2:1) As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time,gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. 4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions —it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith —and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
There is so much beauty in every step of our journey
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