I want my life to be a response to the Gospel. I want to be so immersed in the Gospel that it overflows out of my life.
Every human heart has this desire to have someone's attention, to be accepted, to be approved of, to be thought highly of. I think God put that in us so He could give it to us, but we abuse it by trying to get others to pour that into us. We go around trying to get the applause of people. Whether it is through our looks, our accomplishments, our success, or even our tweets and FB statuses.
Whenever I notice my heart going to others for applause, I have to go back to the cross and remember that I already have what I'm looking for in Jesus. On the cross...
He poured out his life, so that I could have a full life.
He emptied himself, so that I could be filled with his spirit.
He lost the approval of God, so that I could have the approval of God.
He was rejected by his Father, so I could be accepted by his Father.
He lost the applause of God by my sin, so that I could have the applause of God by his righteousness
Out of sheer belief and gratitude of that...
I don't need to get life from others. I can give it away to others.
I don't need others to fill me, I can pour out into others.
I don't need the approval of others, I can approve of others.
I don't need others to know I matter, I can make others matter
I don't need people to be interested in me, I can be interested in them.
I don't need others to applaud and celebrate my accomplishments, I can applaud and celebrate their accomplishments.
Because I already have ALL of that in my relationship with Jesus.
When I walk in to a room, I don't need to be a "HERE I AM!" kind of person, I can be a "THERE YOU ARE!!" kind of person. Because God already sees me and His attention is on me.
I want to be free and at rest in my identity in Christ, so that others will be at rest and free to be themselves around me.
I don't want to sell people on myself, I want to sell them on themselves in Christ.
I fail to do this so often (which makes his grace all the more rich to me). But this is what I hope to do and be.
When our lives are being filled up by the Gospel every day, when we allow ourselves to be poured into by God's Spirit and receive all of his approval, acceptance, attention, and applause for us in Jesus.... then our lives will inevitably overflow the Gospel.
