The Quietness Inside is Growing: His Rest is Overflowing

The more that I see Jesus, the more that I realize all the worries, fears, and recriminations in the back of my head were never me to begin with.

That is the flesh, that is our flesh, the residue of the sin nature which has been put to death at the Cross.

Most Christians still do not realize that Jesus did not just die for us, but He died as us. He took our sin, our dead selves meandering along in Adam, and all of that sinful self was crucified at the Cross.

For the longest time, though, I was routinely, repeatedly baited into thinking that I had to do something about how I felt, what I was thinking, what I was feeling.

Ugh ... so much focus on "I ... I ... I."

How painful all of that can be!

It's getting easier and easier to ignore all of that noise. We are not defined by our feelings, and we are not to identify with every thought that flies through our heads. We are not defined by what people do to us, nor are we defined by what we have done or are doing.

Jesus does not go away from us when there is unrest in our flesh, either. That was the real deception that had confused me and other Christians for so long. So many of these so-called self-help programs make you more helpless, because they teach you to focus on yourself.

We do not need to fix ourselves, for our old selves were fixed to the Cross, with Jesus, and now we have a new identity, a new life in Christ! (Colossians 3:1-4)

We need to stop looking at ourselves. We need to let Jesus by our life, and we reign with Him!

This has taken me so long, only because for the longest time I thought that I had to put out every fire in the back of my head. I felt compelled to answer every fear, every hurt, every upset in the back of my mind. I was not able to see Jesus before me and around me because I was all too busy looking ... at myself.

Let's look to Jesus, and look away from everything else! 

"Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God." (Hebrews 12:2)