It's All About Him

August 9, 2015
Minister Sharon W. Jones
Integrity of Heart Ministries

Colossians 1:15-16 (NKJV)
¹⁵ He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.¹⁶ For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.

I can remember years ago when the Lord started drawing me to Him. In particular, I can remember having just started working for the DuPont Company in Wilmington, Delaware after graduating from college. I was very excited to be working and earning an income. However, after a few years into the routine of going to work and coming home, I remember wondering about the purpose of my life. This question invaded my thought life on a regular basis.Often my thinking would almost take me into another realm as I pondered why human beings were here on this earth.

I believed in God but I didn't know Him. This constant thought about my purpose in life came along with a recurring dream that I would have. In this dream there would be total darkness with thousands of flickering stars and I would find myself falling in a downward spiral into this darkness among these stars. It seemed like I was in outer space, just falling and falling and falling, and I would wake up full of fear. I now believe that that dream was a picture of my condemned soul knowing that it was going to live eternally separated from God unless my purpose was found in Him.

The love of God began to draw me and eventually I did find my way to Jesus through a Baptist church that I began attending in Wilmington. I believe I thought in the beginning of my walk with Jesus, like so many others do, that I was okay now because I had been saved from going to hell and was now on my way to heaven. Jesus was my Savior and Lord in name only because my thinking had not been renewed. So, I thought that I could continue with my plans, my desires, and my will and add Jesus into what I was doing. I thought that I could get Jesus to bless, agree with, and move forward the things that I wanted to do. When the frustrations of a life lived with one foot in the world and one foot in the church began to cause me to wonder what the true Christian life was all about, the Lord began to reveal to me that Christianity is not about me but all about Him.

I realized that I had been trying to walk out my Christian faith under the doctrine of “Me, Myself, and I” with a little Jesus added in. This is a carnal life that produces no results that bring glory to God, only a life in silent defeat wearing a mask every Sunday to the church house. By the grace of God, through faith in the Word of God, my mind began to be renewed to the truth of God and I realized that this life was all about Jesus. This life that I had been given by God was not about me trying to follow the dictates of the world's way and become what I wanted to be, but about me becoming my true self – the self that God intended for me to be and had prepared for me before the foundations of the earth.

It's all about Jesus. It's all about Him. When Jesus died, I died. When Jesus was buried, I was buried.When Jesus was resurrected, I was resurrected. When Jesus ascended to the right hand of the Father, I ascended to the right hand of the Father. Jesus, the Christ, is my new and true self.This is why Paul said in Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and thelifewhich I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me”.

The same way I received the gift of salvation by grace through faith in Jesus is the same way I'm to live my life daily, by grace through faith in Jesus. In other words, grace (God's undeserved, unmerited favor) has already provided a life that brings glory to God for me to live on this earth. This new life is hidden in Christ and must be discovered. Faith in Jesus revealed to us through His Word by His Spirit releases the grace that God has already provided to bring to pass everything ordained for our lives. Renewing your mind to the truth of the finished work of Jesus Christ on the Cross, enables you to rest in the work that He has finished for your life now lived out through His resurrected life. This means you do not have to strive for anything in life.You learn to walk daily with a “moment by moment trust” in the purpose and provision that God has prepared and provided the grace for. You learn to yield to His Holy Spirit and to obey His voice as you hear it to accomplish what He ordained for each day of your life. This is the Christian life, and it’s all about HIM!

Scripture Readings:  Ephesians 2:8-10; Colossians 1:15-17, 26-27; Galatians 2:20; John 5:30; Philippians 2:13; Matthew 11:28-30; Matthew 6:33