Less is More

I've come to a much better understanding of what Jesus meant when He spoke about denying myself in Matthew 16:24. It goes along with not being able to arrange for the life I want under my own effort. It goes along with being saved by grace through faith and not by myself. If I'm ever going to discover and follow the Script God has written in my heart, I must surrender all of myself over to Himself. It doesn't matter when I get to go from here to there, because of Christ I have an eternity of life ahead...so what's the rush? Because we have eternal life in Christ, is time really relevant anymore? I don't think so. Patience is part of the Fruit of the Spirit. So if I don't get to be the full-time musician I know He made me to be in this life on this earth, who's to say I won't in the next? When I came to this point about marriage, *WHAM* I met Becka and now I'm married with a beautiful baby girl! Hmmmmmmm....

For those reading who feel you have to strive more, try harder, to be more like Jesus or closer to Jesus...my challenge to you is to stop striving! When in all your striving you get frustrated because stuff isn't working like you expected, stop...pray...and surrender. Let Him make you more like Himself. Let Him come closer to you. Let Him show you the Script He has written in your heart.

Ephesians 2:8-10 reads "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God--not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." WOW! Also, 2 Corinthians 5:17 reads "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" ZOW! What I take away from all this is that when I surrender all of myself over to Himself, I really become a new creation and can now live the life He has "prepared in advance" for me to live. Striving doesn't do it...only surrendering.

Indeed...less is more.