An encounter of the most precious kind

And while we were still sinners…Christ died for us. Romans 5:8

I am fresh off of a particularly sweet morning time with a close encounter of the most precious kind.

In a daily devotional collection I have been reading out of this year, I read my story.

Oh, it was penned by someone else…her name is Alia Joy and her testimony is recorded in a book I received for Christmas last year from my dear friend Lisa who has supplied my morning devotional for more years than I can even stop and recount.

She prays every year before she purchases and every year…it’s just what I need. Right when I need it.

This one is called “A Moment to Breathe” and is from the (in)Courage Community of writers.

Today’s spoke to my heart because it is my testimony.

I highlighted and summarized her thoughts in my journal like this:

Going forward to receive Christ as a child….over and over and over again … “…and hope that this time it took.”
In human moments of failing, in rebellious moments of putting my hand up to God…picturing Him angrily watching and waiting to administer my punishment.
Somehow thinking my performance was tied to His willingness to go to the Cross on my behalf.
One day realizing all of the above was my distorted view of God and who He is and what GRACE is about.
How sometimes I still slip back into that old rut and think that I could ever earn it OR ever lose it.
That this abundant, amazing love of God was once and for all demonstrated on the Cross and never was initiated by me.
While I was STILL….YET…a sinner…Christ died for me.

As I wrote all these things out in my journal, the song that bubbled up from my memory was the 2013 Hillsong offering…Christ is enough for me.

Sometimes the title phrase has sounded wrong to me.

It has a connotation that could be misconstrued in a culture (even a Christian culture) that focuses on me, myself and I.

It can come across to the untrained ear if you just focus on that one phrase like and seem like a sort of self-focused statement…

Yeah. There is enough of what I need in Christ.

But a deeper look at the lyrics clears all of that up.

Give it a fresh listen today <3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6MzgVsP2uE

The lyrics point to a decision to set the face like flint…to turn my back on this world and all that it offers as peace, contentment, prosperity, success, happiness, motivation…and steadfastly walk toward the Cross of Jesus Christ.

Not because I loved Him first.

But because while I was …and when I forget even now…He loves me perfectly.

And so my story has become…

I have decided to follow Jesus.

No turning back.

Share and Save: