Sustain
February 23rd, 2010 § Leave a Comment
I’m sitting here in Mainstacks, C level, just outside the connection to Moffit Library. It’s my first time sitting at one of the one-person desks with their personal plugs and lights.
I’m currently listening to Sovereign Grace’s album Come Weary Saints. I haven’t been really listening to the words, but musically it’s along the same level of most contemporary Christian worship albums. But it definitely is growing on me.
What hits me more is the title of album: Come Weary Saints.
I was reading the Bible out of Mark 1:1-8 today and I reflected on what it meant for someone to prepare his or her own heart for the Lord, to make His paths straight, to let Jesus into their hearts.
John the Baptist preached the baptism of repentance and forgiveness of sin. So that’s the first step. Confession of, forgiveness of, and repentance from sin. Inevitably I was led to think about the cross, the death and life of Jesus, which makes this impossible reconciliation so possible and wonderful.
I realized that most times in my life I have a very twisted view of my Christian walk. It goes something like this: I walk on my own strength, and then I find that my own strength is not enough as I fall and stumble and get hurt. In those moments, I find God’s strength as He picks me up, and in that confidence, I continue to walk on my own strength. I’ve not so much made a decision to reject or forget God in those times of strength, but there is a sense of “I’m doing what I need to do and walking faithfully, so I must be good.”
I’m starting to see more and more that God is the one who sustains abundantly, the one whom, apart from Him, all else is insufficient.
I do not walk on my own strength and fall in my own weakness, but Jesus’ blood and His Holy Spirit sustain my every step. It’s as though every single step I take and every stumbling and falling is cushioned by His pierced hands. He truly breaks my fall.
How daily am I overwhelmed as I let the Potter mold me. Sinful woe, exuberant joy, quiet contemplation, tearful gratitude. How small I am!
Daily, I learn to be a foot soldier, to be a fool, to be a plain and simple jar of clay, so that the treasure inside shines brightly, past the fleshly covering on my outside. It is so hard, but so fulfilling, and yet so easy because of the grace and hope I have in God.
What else could I ever need?
