I'm Third

First: God Second: Others Third: Me I'M THIRD.

[julesblog94]

For he lives ill who does not believe well concerning God.

Saint Augustine- The City of God

[unbrokenbygrace]

[spiritualinspiration2]

[running-2-your-arms-deactivated]

[julesblog94]

Psalm 84

“How blessed are those who dwell in Your house! They are ever praising you! For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord gives grace and glory; no good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly. O Lord of hosts, how blessed is the man who trusts in You!”

  I believe the psalmist considers one of God’s greatest blessings to us is our knowing Him and our praising Him. God gives us earthly blessings for sure: life, friends, money, kids, relationships, jobs, and general things we enjoy. But to be in the full presence of God… “in His house”… must be the greatest blessing of all!

            The psalmist says they are blessed because “they are ever praising God.” To love God and be in His presence will always result in our praise to Him, and nothing else.

            It’s quite a selfless act, really. I don’t believe anyone who loves God could ever stand before Him and look at all the people praising Him and wonder, “OK, so what can this God and all these people do for ME?” I believe that before the throne of God, we will cast our crowns at His feet in worship, as if saying, “All the good things I’ve ever done, the things I was praised for or known for doing well, I get them all to You. It doesn’t matter that You did them through me. It matters that You were the one who did them.” And if we were to have that attitude of selfless surrender now, imagine how much more (and how much better!) we might represent who Christ really is!

            The act of losing our self by surrendering it to Him results in Him dwelling in us, which is the greatest blessing of all! I love that so much. When we lose our self to God, we are not left empty; we are filled with the beautiful gift of His Holy Spirit.

            And of course, we won’t ever have to wait to receive this blessing until the day we see God face to face. Praising God for who He is and giving Him our self right now will result in a greater blessing that we could ever receive through money or people or traveling or anything else.

            But man, it’s so easy to forget that. People and money and relationships are all such good things… that is, until we view them as greater treasures than Christ. It’s so easy to forget that surrender to Him is our greatest treasure. Money, people, cars, jobs, traveling; those things are right under our noses ALL THE TIME. We see people with those things and they seem to be so happy. Therefore, we envy what they do have that we can’t have. Or, we go get those things for ourselves, expecting to become happy. Wow. I’ve fallen into that trap countless times! (And it’s never seemed to work out for me!)

            So why can it be difficult to think this way about Christ? To constantly realize that surrender to Him is our greatest blessing? I don’t really know J. Perhaps because He’s an invisible God, and although the evidence of His existence and His beauty is everywhere we look, we often fail to realize it. Perhaps it’s because we don’t see enough people who are fully content in Christ, and Christ alone. Or maybe it’s because we are spiritual beings living in a physical world, and it’s easy to get caught up in the material things rather than the spiritual things.

I think Colossians 3 provides us with a great reminder of how we are to live, with our eyes set on nothing else than Christ:

“Therefore, if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.”

[julesblog94]

2 Corinthians 1:3-5

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, Who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For just as sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ.

[julesblog94]

Treasuring Christ

Philippians 3:7-9a

"But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for Whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him."

Lately, I've been thinking about our purpose in life: to make Christ look great. Most every scripture passage I read makes that calling clear! When I read this passage in Philippians, I began to think of the ways we glorify Him the most in our lives.

God has put family and friends and things in our lives so that we can prove to the world that those things are not our treasure; Christ is. We make Christ look great by counting all other things as nothing compared to the treasure we have found in knowing Christ Jesus our Lord.

This, of course, is a constant struggle for me. That's why I have made it a daily prayer for myself: that I would treasure Him above all others things in my life.

Philippians 1:21

"For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain."

If "death is gain," Christ must be more precious to us than everything we leave behind. When we die in that manner, we glorify Him, even in our death.

God is most glorified in our dying when we are most satisfied in Him.

In the same way, life is a gift that is meant to display the supreme worth of Christ. I believe that this treasuring of Him which displays His worth is most clearly seen by what we are gladly willing to risk and sacrifice for the surpassing value of more of Jesus.

[rashferguson-blog]

[julesblog94]

His Grace is sufficient for us all.

[julesblog94]

Persevere

Lately, I’ve been feeling so weary of life. It’s so evident to me right now that this world is not my home. My home is in the full presence of Christ.

  I would never ever take my own life, but I long to be with Jesus. I have such a strong desire to be freed from this body of sin. I want to be freed from all temptation, heartache, and struggle. I’m tired of breaking God’s heart by sinning. I’m tired of being so self-focused. I want so badly to be in His full presence; to never again forget His awesome glory; to never again even want to sin against this beautiful God.

  Then today I stumbled upon one of the most well-known Bible passages among Christians.

  “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. But if I am to live on in the flesh, this will mean fruitful labor for me; and I do not know which to choose. But I am hard-pressed from both directions, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better; yet to remain on in the flesh is more necessary for your sake. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith.”

  Yeah, it might be great to die and be with Jesus. But you’re here right now. You’re not here to complain about life until you die. You’re not here for yourself.

You’re here to do God’s work. You’re here to encourage others to grow in Christ. You’re here to pray for them and love them.

You’re not here to complain about people. The reason you are here and not with Christ is to encourage each other to persevere.

  “For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.” Philippians 1:6

[julesblog94]

Overcoming Temptation

“Blessed be the Lord, my rock, who trains my hands for war, and my fingers for battle.”

Anybody can put on a suit of armor and hold a sword. But if you don’t know how to wield it, you’ll be just as helpless as if you weren’t wearing any armor at all. It is only with God’s help that I fight affectively.

Lately, I have battled with unrepentant sin. Temptation seems to sweep me up before I have any control over it. I’ve tried mustering up the self-control to stop, but on my own, that is simply impossible.

Now I realize that as I’m battling with controlling my sin, if it wasn’t for God’s help, I really would lose every single time.

It is the power of the Holy Spirit that works through me to overcome temptation. And if that is truly the case, I suppose I lose all bragging rights of overcoming sin! It is God who guides me to do that, not myself.

“He is my steadfast love and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer, my shield and he in whom I take refuge.”

I love the term “deliverer.” It makes me think of when we’re stuck in what seems like a hopeless situation, but someone provides a way out for us.

That is what God does for me when I’m tempted to sin. I am not my way out of temptation. He is my way out. He will never fail to be my way out. I believe that the Holy Spirit can help my desire to love God become even greater than my desire for such fleeting, sinful pleasure.

[julesblog94]

This morning I was really, really missing a dear friend back home.

I haven’t seen him since several days before I left for college. He was one of my biggest encouragements my senior year. He made me want to be a better person, because whenever he would compliment me, he’d compliment the strengths of my character, my relationship with Jesus, or the way I pursued God.

He inspired me to pull out my Bible and read it in between classes, and to read it more in-depth.

He encouraged me to show kindness to everyone. He was one of my biggest influences and examples of how we’re to live for Christ all the time.

He was honest about his weaknesses. His heart was so set after Christ. He’s probably the coolest guy I’ve ever met.

  As I started talking to Jesus about this sadness I felt, I realized I didn’t have to be this sad. So I began to pray a little differently.

I asked God to help me remember how my friend had encouraged me, and to do the same thing to others.

I realized that what I miss about my friend is that I saw Jesus in him so strongly. I’ve obviously never physically seen Jesus, but when talked to my friend, I could really see Jesus in him, and that was really exciting. So, what I really missed was seeing Jesus in such a real way.

So I asked God to let this feeling motivate me to chase after Him in an even stronger way, that I may continue to see Him.

Instead of being sad and missing him, I now feel so thankful that Jesus cared for me enough to place him in my life for my last year of high school. So thankful <3

[drowninginhismercy-blog]

[julesblog94]

Matthew 5:1-6

Jesus opened His mouth and began to teach, saying, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”

  When I first read this passage, I felt confused. I didn’t understand why Jesus seemed to be saying, “If you’re sad, then you’ll inherit my kingdom!” It seemed to be discouraging joy and happiness.

But these verses are so much deeper than what I first thought. “Poor in spirit” doesn’t simply mean being sad. “Poor in spirit,” I believe, is the realization of our spiritual poverty. It is the realization of who we really are in the presence of an Almighty God.

Quite humbling, really!

I think, if I constantly realized who I am in the presence of God, I would be a lot less prideful.

To think about Him looking straight at the motives of my heart, my unending sins, my flawed self, and realizing just how imperfect I am, I would stop focusing on me and start thanking God more for His grace.

[staypozitive]

[quesoquesoquesoqueso]

[damnprettyworld]

[julesblog94]

Pray for Your Enemies

I have a tendency to talk about sinful people to other sinful people. I complain about things they said, what they do, and how they get on my nerves. And when I complain to others, their response is usually agreeing with me and even complaining with me.

But what if I start talking about sinful people to perfect Jesus? What if, instead of going straight to complain to my friends, I asked God to change my heart and change their heart?

Would anything change?

That would be a big, fat “YES!”

The change may not happen overnight. But I truly believe that if we start praying consistently for the people who bother us the most, Jesus will transform our attitudes toward them. He’ll put on our hearts things to pray for them. And, if we pray to let us see others through His eyes, He truly will change our attitudes and feelings towards them. I don’t believe it’s possible to hate someone who we consistently and genuinely pray for.