During Lent, I will be sharing a few thoughts and reflections that I have along the way as I journey through Breathe. It would be good to do this with you--whoever you are--as sisters and brothers of Christ.
John 1:4
His breath filled all things with a living, breathing light. Light that thrives in the depths of darkness, blazing through murky bottoms. It cannot, and will not, be quenched.
"At the very beginning then, you can be sure of this: that Jesus came to save you fully--now, in this life--from the power of sin, and to rescue you altogether from your spiritual enemies."--Hannah Whitall Smith, from The Christian's Secret to a Happy Life
Where do we get this idea that we should be further along than we are? I encounter it constantly--in myself, in others. We carry this shame of being less whole, less holy than we imagine that we "should" be. We apologize for our need for God. Some of it is from true conviction--we recognize that our sin is staring us in the face. We see our compulsions and addictions, the anger in us, the resentment that clouds our vision. We know that it is not of God. But the shame that we live under for not being more healed and more whole! We are embarrassed of how much work there is yet be done! We see habits that still have a hold on us and pain that burns angrily inside. We think that we should be done with sin that still shows up in our life.
I believe that God fully releases us from the power of sin in our lives. We can be unbound by the forces that control us. It begins with embracing ourselves in the love of God--and loving even the parts of us that embarrass us and keep us beaten down. The breath of God will not be quenched. There is no darkness in us that puts out the light of God. We can rest at the feet of Jesus, knowing our sin and shame, and recognize that we don't save ourselves from our own sin. We bring it to Jesus. We celebrate our need for Christ. We are not are own spiritual directors. Jesus died for us at the point of our deepest darkness. Somehow Christ gave us at our place of deepest shame worth because he did not cast us aside but embraced us. Today we can rejoice at our need for God, at the depth of our sin, because it is all the more room for Jesus to work in us--fully and completely.
Breathe in your need for God today. I am breathing in my need.
2 comments:
I find my defeat greatest when I look only at myself and my failures. I try, try, try! to put it all together neatly so that I can present it appropriately to Jesus. But I am reminded again that salvation is all about Jesus and not really about me. I am simply the receiver; He has done/is doing all the redeeming. Help me, Lord Jesus, to simply allow you to do in me, what you so eagerly await, even long, to do.
Where do we get this idea that we should be further along than we are?
This question made me stop. I think I've asked it before, and yet I find myself reading it as if I haven't. Actually, more like I've forgotten the question. I think I need to think on this question a while.
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