Look Up!

So… It's the end of another year and it's time to do a bit of thinking about what happened in 2013 and what needs to be accomplished in 2014.  A friend of mine wrote this and I think it sums up what I hope to do more of this next year.  Enjoy!

No, I haven't tried everything.  But I have spent many decades trying to acquire things, power, wealth, status, security, belonging, and still… "vanities of vanities."  It is as one finally comes to the foot of the cross, with empty hands, a broken heart and contrite spirit and looks up that the answer is clear.  Jesus.  Have you seen Him lately?  Not the sentimentalized Jesus that gives you warm feelings like comfort food, not the Jesus Who is there as a self-help motivator in becoming a better you in your personal quest for self-actualization, not the Jesus to petition for personal gain (name it and claim it) or personal growth.  But the Jesus Who looks down at you from the cross, sees deep into the core of your being and says, "My child… You are My focus.  I am paying the price… It is finished…"

And it is done.  No more empty searches.  No more counterfeit gods or idols.  For I have seen His eyes, hear His voice.  And I know He is enough.

Jesus, the gospel.  All external to ourselves, something we cannot do ourselves (Eph. 2:8-9).  Is He sufficient?  Absolutely!  And for all time!  But only if we stop augmenting the gospel with other things, even with our best intentions and our best actions, to have a "value added" product.  

Only Jesus - His sufficiency.  Nothing else - only Jesus.  Jesus.

The gospel has power (Romans 1:16).  His Spirit, Who can indwell us, has power (Acts 1:8).  We want control.  We try to box in the fullness of the Word - Jesus - and His Spirit into manageable and predictable adjuncts to our personal quest - done in our power, in our timing, and in our way, and hopefully within our own comfort zone.


But freedom is available.  The problem is that I am my own jailor holding the keys to my own cell (my life of searching but never finding.)  And I fear of letting go…

And yet He looks at me with longing, loving, satisfying, and knowing eyes and says:

"It is finished.  I've paid the price of all you owe.  Come, My beloved, unto Me.  Let Me give you wings to soar as eagles.  Let Me enlarge you.  You carry so many weights and burdens and hurts. Time to downsize!  Release your grasp on all things - even your very life - and reach out with empty hands to Me.  Let Me embrace you, renew your strength, give you My vision and My hearing for spiritual things and a new heart - whole and unbroken - part of My own heart.  With My heart of passion and compassion beating inside you, filled with the power of My Spirit and My Word, and your senses functioning supernaturally, you shall walk in My paths with confidence and clarity.  Your hands will be extensions of My hands, your voice will affirm and speak with My anointing.  And you shall know the intimacy with Me for which I created you.

Beloved, stand, emptied, at the foot of My cross.  Let our eyes meet.  Look up, My child.  Look up."

Like I said, I hope to spend more time in quiet communication with my heaven Father.  I hope to 'look up' and listen.  And be renewed.