Empty handed.

A friend of mine gave me a CD by Tenth Avenue North for my birthday. All the songs are pretty sweet, but there's one that has caught my attention lately called "Lift Us Up to Fall". At one point in the song it says "we come empty hands held out". And that has really struck a chord in me this week.

I'm slowly realizing that God does not need me, but that I really really need Him. I am a wretched and depraved sinner desperately in need of salvation.

My pastor said something on Sunday that I thought was really cool. He said that our lives do not make sense without Christ, that we were made for Him. He also said that in Christ, we have everything we need. I thought that was a pretty awesome thought to rest in. God's got us covered.

The Lord has brought over and over to my mind, that life is just not about me. I wake up each morning wanting to focus on my activities for the day, and my agenda. And then I become worried, because then I have to figure out a way to make all those things happen. It has struck me so hard that I can't bring anything more to the Lord than my heart. God is way more concerned with my attitude than with what I'm doing. And that so contradicts what the world tells us.

God's been constantly asking me these past few days "where's your heart?". He has brought to my attention Matthew 6:21 which says "for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." And most days my treasure and my heart are in the wrong place.

Recently, I have been remodeling my room. And in the process I have gone through just about everything in my room, and throwing out stuff I don't need anymore. A couple of days ago, I got around to my trophies and medals. As I looked over them, I realized that they were nothing more than a piece of metal or a piece of wood. They were covered in mounds of dust and I hadn't even looked up on the top of my desk where they were stored in years. I ended up keeping a few. But as I took the throw away pile downstairs to the trash I kept thinking to myself "is this all I have to show for my life?", and "this is really pitiful."

I don't want a bunch of metal and paper to be all I have to show the Lord at the end of my life. I know He wants my heart. Like the song says, we come empty handed to the cross. And I think that is so amazing because that takes so much of the burden off.

Christ sets us free. He's got everything under control. He's all we need.

And all the brothers and sisters said AAAAmen.