Filthy Rags

Why do we stop short of the incredible vision of radiant, set-apart feminity He desires to showcase in and through our lives? Because we don't truly grasp our utter helplessness; our absolute desperate need for all that He is. We don't understand that apart from Him, we have nothing, we are nothing, we can accomplish nothing. We are still looking within ourselves to find beauty and strength that can come only from Him.

We don't possess anything beautiful or worthwhile in and of ourselves. "We are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; we all fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away." Isaiah 64:6

"If a soul has any beauty, it is because Christ has endowed that sould with His own, for in ourselves we are deformed and defiled! There is no beauty in any of us but what our Lord has worked in us." (Charles Spurgeon) We are unworthy. Our souls are dirty. True repentance starts by acknowleding those facts. We are defiled and tainted. We are utterly unfit to bear His name. But it's not about our worthiness. It's about His.

The God of the universe, the Author of all that is good and lovely, passed by me and saw me in my wretched, hopeless condition. He was not attracted to my beauty or goodness because I had none. I had absolutely nothing to offer Him. I was ugly and helpless, drowning in the blood of my own guilt and condemnation.

Only he can trasform that into something of beauty.

That's My King

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzqTFNfeDnE

This was a video shown at church that I found especially powerful. It's so easy to lose sight of the big picture, which I have to admit that I have been guilty of lately. I know my relationship with Christ isn't always a feel-good, emotionally charged experience where you feel close to Him all the time. I defintely don't feel that right now. But I realize that a God-centered life isn't about how you feel, it's a choice. I choose Him, even when I don't feel like living it, when I think He doesn't care, when I think I am too busy. He chose me, he died for me. My life only exists to bring Him glory. It doesn't matter what I accomplish, in the end, it honestly doesn't matter. I just have to remember the bigger picture and not let what I feel at the moment sway me. Thank God for his mercy and bringing great people into my life to point these truths out.

It's a lot easier to build our lives around the pursuit of wordly applause and selfish pleasure and just fit Christ in somewhere on the side than to radically pour out our lives in sacrificial devotion to Him. Amy Carmichael says it best "What is the secret to great living? Entire separation to Christ and devotion to Him. Thus speaks every man and woman whose life has made more than a passing flicker in the spiritual realm. It is the life that has no time for trifling that counts."