June 19, 2012
“Trust God from the bottom of your heart; don’t try to figure everything out on your own. Listen for God’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; he’s the one who will keep you on track.” Proverbs 3:5-6 The Message
God’s gift for you is not hidden. It’s right out in the open. Everything that you long for .. strive for .. and even worry over is found in Christ. No .. it isn’t that simple. You need all of God’s grace to think right and to live right. A clean slate and a fresh start are not possible without Jesus. You just keep putting another layer on top of another layer until you’re worn out and exhausted trying to start over. But God doesn’t withhold his counsel from your heart. He wrote it down long before you were even interested. He said to “trust him from the bottom of your heart”. That’s where the real trust lies in you. Sometimes that part of you becomes calloused and self=protective because of past hurts or partially healed wounds: self-inflicted and otherwise. But God doesn’t hold back. He doesn’t want you to have to lean on yourself or try to figure it out on your own. The only thing he wants from you is “everything you do and everywhere you go”. And his promise to you: He’ll “keep you on track”. That’s usually where we slip off track when we give him “most” of everything and “mostly” everywhere in our lives. One of the oldest temptations is the false voice that whispers that it takes too much time to trust God completely. It takes too much energy to find our real strength in Christ and not ourselves. That’s a path to nowhere. The way of your life is found in Christ. He’ll take all the wrong thinking and wrong living. He won’t judge you for one moment. That judgment has happened on the cross. All that Christ has to give you is “everything”. There isn’t a formula … there is a faith … a trust rooted and grounded in Christ’s love for you. That’s the life He offers you today. It only takes a moment …
“Everything that we have — right thinking and right living, a clean slate and a fresh start — comes from God by way of Jesus Christ.” 1 Corinthians 1:29 The Message
Ken Chester: Grace-Gripped is sent M-F to Christ-followers learning the everyday art of trust and friends of Priority One (ken@priorityone.org)
