It's amazing how quick I can be to turn my life into the work of "my hands". It's because I start thinking of things in terms of "my"....my schedule, my parenting, my cooking, my planning, my abilities, my responsibility. And my spirit grows independent, my faith grows weak, and my love for Jesus grows a bit stale. It can happen in a moment or grow over days...it's all about my perspective...what my mind is being renewed by and what thoughts I am (or am not) taking captive.
Jesus is so gracious...He is quick to bring me to a helpless state of recognizing, once again, that "apart from him I can do nothing"(John 15:5). I am so thankful for all the loving ways He disciplines me and draws me to the foot of the cross...a child who continues to lie and leave me bewildered and helplessly crying out for wisdom, a meal that is burnt, a schedule that goes haywire leaving me looking to Jesus for His strength and joy to accomplish what needs to be done in the short hours I have left, the pains and trials of others that cause me to run to the Healer and Provider and Sustainer because only He knows best and can heal, provide, and sustain in the ways that they need.
The works of my hands will burn. They are as filthy rags. They are but echoes of pride within the walls of my heart. My life must be lived by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. Everything that I am and everything I do must be laid down as a living sacrifice (Romans 12:1-2) before the One Who truly holds it all in His hands, Who is the Giver of life and breath and everything else (Acts 17:24)....for from Him and through Him and to Him are all things (Romans 11:36).
Martin Luther got it...yesterday, over 400 years ago, he nailed 95 theses' upon a wooden door and, in many beautiful words, proclaimed "IT'S ALL ABOUT GOD!!!!" I am so thankful for the example and testimony that God has given us in a man like Martin Luther and so thankful for the passion He had for the Word of God and the glory of God above all things. And, today, God used him to encourage my heart and to spark this blog post through words he spoke many years ago:
"I have held many things in My hands and I have lost them all. But whatever I have placed in God's hands, that I still possess."
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