Breaking through the damp soil is a plant.
Roots bursting with life and soaking in the water poured out from above, new life emerges from hiding. Once buried in dry ground, a small and insignificant seed has been recognized and called to spring forth. Evolving into a delicate flower, the dirt has been shaken off. The sky encircles this small plant, the sun shines the brilliance of light with each new dawning, yet the plant forgets and begins believing its sufficiency has arisen out of its own personal growth and desire to extend its petals closer to the Sun.
For the past few years, I thought I could do it.
I thought that by my own efforts, my understanding of His sovereign rule would expand. The more fervently I climbed the ladder of faith rung by rung, the closer I was brought in an intimate relationship with Christ. The more I sought, the more I believed that I was finding His hands extended through the thick haze to pull me nearer and nearer. The more Christian things I poured into my glass, the more I felt I was drinking in the heart of the Creator.
Yesterday, as I had a wonderful day of conversation with a friend of mine, Sara, God connected us with a man sitting to our right in a small Starbucks. Overhearing our talk about spreading the Gospel, he became thrilled. Launching into a talk about his work to become a pastor and his understanding of the Bible, I was quickly stopped by a simple statement that cut across the conversation.
Chuckling and laughing, he was excited and quick to say that God's word is "evolving with the times." Thinking through this statement, I quickly stepped back and began contemplating the ramifications of this statement and came to solidify my own opinion.
I believe that the God of the Bible and His word are Truth, the solid rock, and the one thing within this fleeting life that never changes. Ever the same, His Truth will stand even when the earth gives way beneath our very feet. No matter how many trends filter through the swinging doors of our mind, what the "popular" Americanized Christian opinion is, or what is casually splattered across the latest OK! magazine, He is the same...always.
Scripture says quite clearly,
"But you, O Lord, sit enthroned forever, your renown endures through all the generations...but you remain the same, and your years will never end."
(Psalm 102:12, 27)
Yet, how often do I find myself modifying Truth as if I have the final say? How often do I belittle God setting aside heaping piles of heavenly wisdom in favor of what I believe fits the track of my life and the cultural context? How many times do I reconfigure my idea of God and lower Him to my sinful nature that sways, shifts, and changes by the day if not bound to Him?
Numbers 23:19 says, "God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind."
In this way, I am reminded of a world that consistently molds and changes Jesus into something pleasing and comfortable for us to accept...ourselves. Eliminating, highlighting, and ripping out pieces that stir tension meant to change our hearts, we buy into a Christianity that steadily jogs alongside our culture and settles us quite nicely into a state of false equilibrium within our souls. Gazing at our own image in the mirror, we can become quite pleased with what we see. This subtly enables us to chase our own comforting image instead of the image of a Savior who challenges us to change.
"Radical" by David Platt has challenged me in several ways recently particularly in a striking passage saying,
[We are molding Jesus into our image. He is beginning to look a lot like us because, after all, that is who we are most comfortable with. And the danger now is that when we gather in our church buildings to sing and lift up our hands in worship, we may not actually be worshiping the Jesus of the Bible. Instead we may be worshiping ourselves.]
Soaking this in and meditating upon this challenge, God began revealing to me just how much I had been clinging to the strength of my own weak soul and looking to myself for guidance. I had wrapped my heart around works with the intention of justifying myself before Him, failing to rest in the completion of the work on the cross. Whenever a shadow darted across my walk of faith, secretly installing fearful doubting, raining shame upon my head, and unearthing guilt, I would turn my eyes inward as feelings of unworthiness bubbled up. I had actually believed my own futile efforts were bringing me closer to God.
Yet in Isaiah 64:6 God nearly places a megaphone to my ear with Isaiah the prophet seemingly yelling, "All these "things" you're doing, even the most Mother Theresa-like acts are like filthy rags before God." With ears ringing, I sat down and process such a thought.
How can this be? The outward appearance of many Christians around me seems to suggest we are earning our way deeper into God's heart. I am finally beginning to see that the cross is the only thing justifying me in the sight of the Father.
John 19:30 further contrasts with my previous pattern of thinking and refocuses my eyes on the place where they need to be saying, "...Jesus said, "It is finished." With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit."
As a person with a major type A personality, the idea of resting in the completion of a task can be a real struggle for me as I constantly look ahead to improving my faith walk. Always making to-do lists, goals, and sometimes allowing my sense of worthiness to rise out of my own "A+ efforts", I can cast an unintentional shadow over my foolish heart as it spins into constant overdrive, taking on the weight of a world I wouldn't be able to support or save in my wildest dreams. I had elevated and uplifted my own role in gaining salvation and growing closer to Him without even realizing it. My mind had flipped it backwards, believing God was the One who needed to accommodate my growth instead of my own heart in desperate need of more of His transformative grace.
Giving Jesus more and more of my fragile heart, undivided attention, and escalating devotion, He has brought me to a place of deeper humility upon my bruised knees before His throne. Nothing apart from His grace, I am mere bones of dust and a heart inclined to further my own glory. Head bowed and eyes closed, I envision Him. Clothed in light and shining brilliantly, Jesus stands the same yesterday and today and forever (Hebrews 13:8).
And thus, my understanding of Jesus is evolving.
And as I pause and glance backwards at the incredible walk of this year, He has unearthed and awoken more of this identity lying within His steady heart (I have a long way to go as we all do). My roots have come alive and thriving solely because of the new life that I have received through the justification of Christ's death for me on the cross. It is not because of anything I have done by my own strength but by His.
Nothing about Jesus has changed this year.
Not His heart for me, His reign over this world, or His unending grace, rather He has stirred a deep change and transformation within me that has just begun. I have not ripped the sheet off of a God of consistent movement that chooses to modify himself and shift along with this rampant culture of change, but a sovereign God of permanence and everlasting promises. With words that hold true generation from generation, we are given the guidance of a God who wishes to lead our lives not merely piggyback on our own meager attempts to reach His heart.
With every day we need to be praying for His perfect and peaceable wisdom to cover our lives. We need to be on our knees praying to tear down these walls of ignorance around our hearts that forcefully shut out the grace He wishes to impart.
Jesus is the permanent King of Love who draws beauty out of dormant souls by the Spirit awakened and alive in us. As walls of weakness crumble, He builds a dwelling place for Himself within us and we begin to evolve into the identity we were designed for.
Philippians 1:6 says, "And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at they day of Jesus Christ."
A constant journey towards experiencing the treasure in Christ is the aim.
I may think that I am extending my petals to the sun by my own accord but it this light of His that has drawn me closer to the fullness of who He is. I may be running after Him out of love and devotion, but His love has been scripted into my shifting heart before I ever had the chance love Him (Jeremiah 1:5).
By recognizing that He is the One bringing evolving journeys of faith to completion in Him one day, hearts delving deeper and farther into the Father's are born as we release a tight grip on our own efforts to embrace the redemptive work on the cross.
In a world of constant chaos, driving fear, and beautiful change, may you be strengthened by the God who whispers He is enough...always.
