surrendered heart

Lessons from The Bishop’s Wife

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bishops-wife1

I wonder how many of us are already overwhelmed by the prospect of buying all those Christmas gifts. Maybe you’re stressing about what to give that certain person who is so hard to buy for. Or maybe you don’t know how you’ll manage to find the time to buy and wrap all those presents and still manage to get everything else done.

I think I have an idea.

Maybe the gift you really need to be concerned about is the main gift you’ll ever give. As the main character in the movie The Bishop’s Wife says, “We’ve remembered everybody except one — that child born in a manger so long ago.” What will we give Him?

Talk about hard to buy for! This child, Jesus, already owns it all. The cattle on a thousand hills? Already got it. All the gold in Fort Knox? Already His.

So what can you give Jesus this year?

Maybe the best present you can give is to be present to Jesus. Maybe the best gift you can give is you. Not your time or your money or your best intentions, but you.

In other words, what Jesus wants more than anything from you this Christmas is your surrendered heart. What He desires is every part of you– the good, the bad, the ugly, all of it.

The good news is that no matter how badly you’ve screwed your life up, Jesus still wants it. No matter how much of a mess you’ve made of you, Jesus still wants you, just as you are right now. Not as you could be, but as you are in this very moment.

The better news (or maybe even the best news of all) is that Jesus takes you as you are but refuses to leave you that way. He promised to help you become every bit of who He made you to be. And it’s never too late in this lifetime to be all that God made you to be.

So that’s one less present you have to worry about, right?

Let your light shine

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lighthouses

“Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven (Matthew 5:16, NASB).”

I find it very interesting that Jesus does not say “Do your good works, so that your light may shine and glorify your Father who is in heaven.” The command is not do good works, but let your light shine. The good works come out of the light shining and are God at work in and through your surrendered heart and willing spirit. As you are being transformed into the image of Christ, that light shines more and more brightly. And one of the main results of our being transformed is that we become more compassionate and are able to love the unlovely and unlovable.

Too many times, all our good activities and events and programs get in the way of our being lights in the world. We are too busy doing things for God that we neglect to be God’s people that show the world what He is like. If all they see is me running around, fatigued and miserable from all my activities for God, they will have missed God. Don’t get me wrong. These activities are good, but the focus is being the Light of Christ wherever we are and whatever we are doing.
The reward is the glory of God given to God. It is not awards or commendations or praise for me. If I shine, the world sees Jesus, not me. People sees God as He truly is and are drawn to that. Lord, help me to not be another busybody in your Kingdom, but a Light that shines in the dark that the world and the devil will never be able to put out.

My prayer is that we get to the end of our lives and hear Jesus say, “Well done, good and faithful servant. You took your light into the dark places few others were willing to go and loved those few others were willing to love and in reaching to the least of these, your light shone brightest.

As always, I believe. Help my unbelief.