Not Sin, but the Son (and See Him, Too!)

The Son is not far away.

He lives in us, and lives all around us too, because He holds the universe together.

Like some people, I believed that His presence in my life depended on how I felt.

It has nothing to do with how we feel.

The sense of panic which had been so induced in my life, that come from the feeling that I had to hold everything together on my own.

That is not the case at all.

He holds all things together:

"17And he is before all things, and by him all things consist." (Colossians 1: 17)

He calls all of us to look at Jesus, who is alive and reigning, not at ourselves.

This is a hard saying for many of us, because we live in these modern times, in which we make our own way in the world (supposedly).

He is alive today, and helping all of us.

He does not need our help to be here.

However, Beloved, we need more than His help. We need His everything.

This revelation has been incredibly important for me to accept, as well.

For the longest time, I was asking God to help me with the struggles in my life.

I was praying: "Help me to. . ."

That kind of prayer is not good enough.

He is all about doing all things through us, and merely asks us to receive all things with Him (Romans 8: 32-33)

Consider what Jesus told the disciples of His day, and what He offers to us, His adopted brethren:

"The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." (John 10: 10)

Jesus did not say: "I have come to help you live your life better."

He also did not say: "I have come to make your life better", or "I have come that you might live a better life."

He furthermore did not say: "I have come that you would have an example to live by."

No! Jesus said: "I have come that you might have life, and that more abundantly!"

John was more pointed in his comments:

"11And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life." (1 John 5: 10-12)

I kid you not - I was trying to live this life on my own. I believed that Jesus had died for my sins, but I was filled with fear and panic every day because I had believed that I was on my own to live this life myself.

This has been a difficult revelation for me to explain, but explain I will as God gives me grace to write.

I was trying to create Him inside of my head. I was convinced that I had to make Him alive through my thinking and my feeling.

As a result, I was constantly looking at my feelings and thoughts, making sure that they were not straying or running away.

I have only learned that I can be mad or angry, and Jesus does not go away. God does not huff off or get blocked from me.

Even in David's psalm prophesying the Messiah's crucifixion, we find these verses:

"My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? " (Psalm 22: 1)

But later:
"

22I will declare thy name unto my brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee.

 

23Ye that fear the LORD, praise him; all ye the seed of Jacob, glorify him; and fear him, all ye the seed of Israel.

 

24For he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; neither hath he hid his face from him; but when he cried unto him, he heard." (Psalm 22: 22-24)

 

David was saved, and Jesus came back to life and is now seated at the right hand of God the Father.

 

The tension and wrong believing that had crippled had everything to do with the lie that God would come or go depending on how I felt.

 

I had misunderstood too many scriptures without rightly dividing the Word.

 

I was living in my head, and caught up in my feelings, convinced that what I was thinking or feeling had to be answered or resolved.

 

He calls us to cast all our cares, and keep casting our cares on Him. That was something I was not good at either. I had been so used to holding onto all my cares.

 

I had spent so much time and energy trying to quiet down my mind, when the Bible is very clear about how we are transformed and changed: not through our efforts, but beholding, seeing His Son!