To Be The Given…

Tears run down my face as I try and articulate the stirring that Christ is doing in me.  How do I put words to the life-changing work of Holy God?  I struggle to comprehend.  How can I ever explain?  Words are far from adequate when one feels a holy change beginning.

God has reached down from heaven high, to touch the heart of human man…my heart, your heart.  He humbled Himself to lowest extent, Creator God becoming the lowest of all creation.  Why?  To fulfill a plan… the only way… to redeem this ugly mess that sin had grossly stained.  He came not just to give us life, but to BE LIFE.  He came not just to give us redemption, but to BE THE ONLY WAY.

It is when I stop and purposefully focus – when I stop the clamoring of the world in order to breathe deep and allow His grace to fall fresh on my wildly beating soul.  It is then that I begin to understand the depth of His love, the grandeur of His sacrifice, and the holiness of His design.  He came, not just to give OF Himself, but He came to BE the GIVEN.  For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved (John 3:17).

Jesus came, not just to give us the Gift of salvation, but He IS the Gift of salvation.  How did I not see this before?!  Changing this verb into a noun changes my entire life’s purpose.  For you see, if we are called to be like Jesus, if we claim to be “followers of Christ”, we must follow Him in His greatest moment, and live lives that are GIVEN in complete service to the King.  We must die to ourselves, so that HE can live in us.  Galatians 2:20 tells us I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.  Again, I hear God say, What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).  How do I do this, Lord?  How do I glorify You in my body?  I am realizing that I am not my own.  What is it that you are calling me to do?

And then, in the stillness of morning, as the light breeze stirs heat of the sun beating down, I hear Him whisper His grace across my heart,

 ”Be the gift.  Don’t just give OF yourself, but BE MY GIFT TO THIS WORLD.”

Be the gift.  And in that moment, light floods my thoughts and a thousand splashes of color light up the quiet of my day.  My life is not meant to be spent giving a little here and giving a little there.  My life is meant to be lived out, GIVEN all.  This is purpose and this gives breath to my earthen vessel. For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake.  For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.  But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us (2 Corinthians 4:5-7).

So, I bow low and let the tears run freely down.  Show me, dear Lord…show US, how to live lives GIVEN ALL.  Empty us of ourselves…all of our flesh and desires and passions and goals and dreams…and fill us with only YOU.

Today’s Challenge: What is standing in the way of you surrendering all in order to live a life GIVEN ALL?  Spend some quiet time this day asking God to comb through the recesses of your heart until all is uncovered.  What are you holding tightly to that hinders the Kingdom work of Jesus Christ being completed through you? 

Jesus prayed in John 17:20-26:

²⁰ Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;

²¹ That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.

²² And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:

²³ I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.

²⁴ Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.

²⁵ O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me.

²⁶ And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.

Jesus lived to make the Father known.  Oh, Friend, that we may do the same.