Seasons of life are a beautiful thing. Sometimes we go through those months where everything seems hard and we are thrust towards Jesus. But life may not always be hard. There are times when the sun shines down on everything we do and it feels like we have all the world. I’ll be honest with you. Right now is one of those sunny times for me. I’m grateful. It’s been a crazy year and it’s refreshing to have some of the craziness lifted for awhile. Really, I have been blessed more than I could ever ask. I live with a family I love in a place I’ve grown to love. I have friends who love me. I’m taking a degree that fascinates me and often hardly even feels like school because I love it so much. I’m watching dreams for the future unfold before my eyes. Sure, not every day is perfect, but I’m blessed beyond what I deserve. Most of all, I have a Jesus who loves me with all His heart. But you know what I noticed? It’s not always as easy to fall into the arms of Jesus and make Him my home when I have so much. Often my necessity drives me to Him. And sure, I still desperately need Him right now. But sometimes the apparent peace makes that fact less obvious. I was praying about it this morning and He asked me a gentle question that really cut to the heart of the matter… Am I only the object of your love when you have nothing else? Am I still your love when you have all the world? Oh Jesus. How can it even be called real love if I only love you when I have nothing else? Wouldn’t real love have you as the highest object of my affections even when life smiles? Last night I was reading the story of the flood and was struck again by the visual of Noah sending out the dove. Somehow I saw myself in that dove… I return to my Master and stay with Him when I have nowhere else to go and life is like a tossing sea… maybe I return when there’s only a few olive trees and the rest of life is still flooded. But will I return to Him when the world is bright with greenery and flowers? Is He my first choice? Or do I choose Him because sometimes He is my only true choice? ‘Cause the thing is, even the bright times of life are not really bright without Him. They may give an illusion of brightness, but not the real thing. There is no joy apart from Him. A.W. Tozer reminds me… “Trying to be happy without a sense of God’s presence is like trying to have a bright day without the sun.” He’s right. We may not always feel our need for Jesus so deeply when life is a sunny path. But oh do we still need Him. Oh do I still want Him. This path isn’t really sunny at all if I can’t walk it with Him. Even if I have all the world, it is nothing without Him to share it with. I want to love Him with the same fervor when my hands are full as I do when they are empty. I want to love Him with abandon even when I might feel like I have all the world. Because He is worth more than all the world... And after all… He does have all the world. And He still loves me.
1 Comment
Anonymous
11/10/2015 10:49:28 am
Amen! This has given me much to think about. Thanks so much for sharing!
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Hannah Rayne20. Lover of Jesus. Daughter. Sister. Friend. Servant. Fan of the kitchen. Graduate of Masters of Biblical Counseling.
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