give yourself away.

truth: we are happiest when we are not seeking ourselves.

"if you POUR YOURSELF OUT for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, THEN shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday." isaiah 58:10

"they are to DO GOOD, to be rich in GOOD WORKS, to be GENEROUS and READY TO SHARE, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is TRULY LIFE." 1 timothy 6:18-19

this makes so much sense: the more responsibility you have, the more you feel the weight of it. but as a christian, this responsibility isn't ours, and was never meant to be! because Jesus has already done it. given us identity, set us free from sin and death, and above all, enabled a relationship with the Father that we cannot mess up. and yet i try so hard to keep everything together, fearing failure and mistake. i'm always trying to predict the outcome, or figure out what is the very best solution. always trying to be the most efficient and the most effective. trying to figure out my life myself, as if that was my responsibility, as if i'm not serving a LOVING and SOVEREIGN God! while none of these things (best solution, efficient, effective) are necessarily bad, they become bad when they become paramount, when they consume everything else. when they eclipse Jesus, who is our HOPE, or come before Him in any way. we make it all about us so often, and in the face of all the decisions, plans, and checklists, we forget to WORSHIP. and in this, we rob Jesus of the glory due to him, essentially claiming that his death wasn't sufficient and that we need to earn our salvation ourselves.

good thing that's not true, because none of us would make it.

when we give ourselves away we take our eyes off of ourselves, off of our plans and desires and selfish motives, and fix them instead on the Lord. we surrender the control we have on our life, or that we think we have. we are forced to let go of the hold we have on our lives and trust that Jesus is enough. and in that, we are fulfilled in a way that brings freedom and true joy.

i'm thankful that Jesus is abundantly patient and gives us grace upon grace.

love,
tracey