Belief + ?

So, I have read or heard the story of the "good Samaritan" umpteen times in my short life as a follower of Jesus, so when it came up in my devotional today I was none too excited. I'm thinking, Oh, man. I've read this a million times! Guh! But, being the forever obedient servant of the Lord that I am *wink, wink* I decided to plod ahead and see if just maybe the Creator of the Universe might be able to pierce my superior intellect with a new revelation. Hello, Pride.

Anyhoo, I'm four verses into the story in Luke 10, and I'm stopped in my tracks at the six words in verse 29.

"...but he wanted to justify himself..."

I didn't even get to the portion of the parable we so often hear in the pew. God honed my focus onto the man to which the parable was told. This expert of the law asked what we needed to do to be saved and received the Great Commandments as his answer...to love the Lord with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength and to love others as we love ourselves. Jesus, God in the flesh, looked him in the eyes and told him what would make him right in the Father's eyes. How to be justified. Righteous. Deemed acceptable. Yet the man was not satisfied with Jesus' definition. He wanted to "justify himself". The entire parable we are so familiar with is Jesus' answer to the man's attempt to make himself right in his own eyes.

So, instead of focusing on the parable, I want us to look at the man behind it. A man who could not accept Jesus' justification. I'd like us to ask ourselves, "Am I like him?" "Do I dismiss God's definition of righteousness so easily?"

"Consider Abraham, 'He believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.'" Gal. 3:6

What made Abraham right in the eyes of God? Belief. Faith. It's that simple. Not belief AND having a quiet time every day. Not faith AND never making a mistake, following every letter of the Christian law.

BELIEF. That's it. That's all.

What are you trying to add to your faith to make you feel acceptable and "right" to God? Do you beat yourself up every time you make a mistake or drop the ball? Maybe you're adding perfectionism to your faith.

Do you give and give until you're a ball of nerves or a ragdoll on the floor no good to anyone? Maybe you've added service to your faith.

Should we spend time with God everyday? Yes. Should we serve? Yes. Should we do our best at what we've been called to do? Yes.

But should we be looking to those things to convince ourselves that we are right in the eyes of God and have his favor because of them? No.

You will mess up. You will have days or seasons when you simply cannot give. Are you going to come down on yourself and doubt your righteousness? Are you going to start looking for ways to prove to God that you are worthy of His love? Do not fall for the lie!! If you have believed on Jesus, you are okay with God. You are still accepted, loved, and deeply cherished.

His love is not conditional.

Ladies, we do not have to earn our acceptance. We do not have to prove our worth. All we must do is believe. Believe that you need Jesus and trust Him with your life. You do that, and you're golden. Stop trying to justify yourself; it's not your job. That job has already been done by the only One qualified to do it.

Accept it. Receive it. Rest in it.

Oh, Jesus, we admit that we like to try to earn your love and grace. We confess that to you today and ask your forgiveness. You died on that cross so we didn't have to be "good enough" and we are claiming today that Your sacrifice was enough. We will stop trying to add to it. We love you, Amen.

Stick Figures and Selfishness

No, this is not one of Cooper's drawings. This is a piece of my journal "art". I've just recently picked up this new quirk from a friend of mine (thanks, Aimee); i've started putting some of my thoughts into pictures. I have, in the past, used charts and graphs as a way to organize my chaotic thought patterns, but upon reading my friend's journal (with her approval-we sometimes share our journals) I saw cute little sketches scattered about and I thought, Hey! Why didn't I think of that? I want to do pictures (whiney voice here)! So, here is one of my latest.

I'm not sure if you can even tell what it is. But this is a picture of where I stand in my family right now (top picture) and what I'm working towards (bottom picture). To the left are the words

My Needs
My Emotions
Me

Around those words are, no, not jump ropes. Those are arms. And to the right of both pictures are me (I'm the one with the beautiful head of ringlets) and my boys...Cooper and Lou. Now, if you can get by the elementary skill level of the piece, you'll notice a couple of things.

Top Picture: My needs are being embraced by me and both my boys are asking me to be with them.
Bottom Picture: My needs are being embraced by God and I'm embracing my family.

Here are the words that I wrote right before I sketched this masterpiece:

"If I could just get my focus off of myself and trust You to fulfill my needs. I've been so dependent on myself for so long--I just don't trust anyone else to care for me. But in taking care of me, I've got nothing left for anyone else! Such an inward focus--everyone else just gets my back."

God has been really speaking to me about living the sanctified life. About being different. About being a servant. It is so countercultural, and as you can tell from my sketches, so against everything in me, yet it is something that Jesus instructs us to do over and over.

"...Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave to all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." Mark 10:43-45

These verses are key to me. Yes, they tell us to serve others, even using the word "slave", but they also remind me of how I have been served. Jesus, the King of Kings, gave his life for me. His entire life was a service of love to His people. If that was His purpose and His ambition, who am I to think that I would be any different?

The problem is, I'm afraid that if I don't take care of myself then no one will. I don't trust. I don't let anyone in beyond a certain point. I am protective of myself. But I have found that in protecting myself, in serving me, I shut everyone else out. The people I love the most are left with an emotionally exhausted, frazzled, dismissive woman. I am so tired from taking care of my "stuff" that I have nothing left to give.

Anybody tracking with me? Anyone else out there just sick and tired of being all about themselves? I want so badly to be the woman in the second picture. I want to be confident that my God is taking care of everything that I need, and in that confidence to be freed up to lavish a service of love onto my family, friends, and community. It will be so; praise God. But I've got to learn to trust Him, don't I? Don't we? We have to trust Him with everything and depend on Him for everything.

I'll be honest; I don't think I know what that looks like quite yet. I'm still figuring it out. Right now it consists of revisiting some old, painful, hidden places and exposing them to Him. Letting Him behind the walls and learning how to let Him heal me. It also involves me stopping and turning to Him as a source of comfort when everything in me screams to turn inward and shut everyone out. It consists of me admitting to Him that I can't do it all, that nothing good lives in my flesh. And, presently, it means active surrender. Laying my plans, actions, thoughts and emotions on His altar of truth and love. Is He trustworthy? Will he take care of me, protect me, and lead me in the right direction? His word says he will. Listen to this....Oh, man. I tried to load the video of Coop saying Psalm 23, but I couldn't figure it out. Reading will have to do...just imagine an adorable, chubby-cheeked 4-yr-old reciting it.

Psalm 23

1 The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.
2 He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,

3 he restores my soul.
He guides me in paths of righteousness
for his name's sake.

4 Even though I walk
through the valley of the shadow of death, [a]
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.

5 You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.

6 Surely goodness and love will follow me
all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD
forever.

If I'm going to say I'm a Christian, I need to act like it. I need to believe God's word and His word says clearly that He is trustworthy to take care of me. We can trust Him, girls. Let's do whatever it takes to do so. And in releasing our needs to Him, we will find energy and love we never knew we had to serve those around us. No more selfishness.

Father God, this is by far one of the hardest things I've ever had to learn. But please, God, help us to get it. We don't want to be selfish anymore! Give us everything we need to learn to trust you to take care of us so that we can expend our energies on others. We love you, amen.