Fixing our eyes upon Jesus

These verses have been challenging and encouraging me this morning...especially with my tendency to let my emotions rule over me. Jesus had emotions, it is evident by His prayers in Gethsemane, but His response is the key. He sought the Father's will (Matthew 26). Through that obedience to the Father, He endured the cross and suffered shame...all for the JOY set before Him. Our Abiding in Christ, Our obedience and submission to His will above our own, these things are what will lead to joy. Not a hope that an emotion might change. Emotions can be all over the place, but my joy remains full in Christ.

Matthew 26:36-46

The Garden of Gethsemane

³⁶ Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to His disciples, "Sit here while I go over there and pray."

³⁷And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be grieved and distressed.

³⁸Then He said to them, "My soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death; remain here and keep watch with Me."

³⁹And He went a little beyond them, and fell on His face and prayed, saying, "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will."

⁴⁰And He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, "So, you men could not keep watch with Me for one hour?

⁴¹"Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak."

⁴²He went away again a second time and prayed, saying, "My Father, if this cannot pass away unless I drink it, Your will be done."

⁴³Again He came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy.

⁴⁴And He left them again, and went away and prayed a third time, saying the same thing once more.

⁴⁵Then He came to the disciples and said to them, "Are you still sleeping and resting? Behold, the hour is at hand and the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners.

⁴⁶"Get up, let us be going; behold, the one who betrays Me is at hand!"

Hebrews 12:1-3

Jesus, the Example

¹Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,

²fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

³For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

Extravagance

I was thinking this Easter weekend about how God loves us so extravagantly. There is so much unrestrained love shown on the cross.

One thing that I've been thinking is how it seems that we celebrate Christmas in a big way, without equally ringing in the importance of Christ's death and resurrection.

I'm not saying Christmas isn't amazing and shouldn't be celebrated, but if we miss the importance of the cross and only celebrate Christ's birth, we're missing it. He was born for this one purpose, to drink the cup that the Father set before Him...this cup that meant bearing our sins, it meant dying a painful death for them and it meant separation from the Father.

Our faith in it's entirety rests on what Jesus did on the cross. Without it, there would be no hope or redemption for us. I have hope because my sins are paid for by Christ. I needed a savior...and Jesus willingly became just that. For me. For you. For all.

It just seems so extravagant.

We get to live an abundant life and we are allowed eternity with God. How can I describe or measure that gift?

I don't even have any more words to say about this. It's just been something my heart has been thinking about the last couple days. It seriously gives me shivers every time I think about God's extravagant love for us.

learning

I feel like Jesus is teaching me a lot lately about what being in a relationship with Him looks like.

As sad as it is, when I "talked" to Jesus in prayer in the past, I didn't realize how stuck I was in the image of me relaying a verbal letter to heaven. I don't know that I ever truly looked at the room around me and thought, "Jesus, you are right here, you are sitting beside me...I can just speak."

I know this sounds really simple and maybe a lot of other people have already got this figured out. But I think that I was a slight bit off from really understanding that Jesus is PRESENT right now with me. I don't need to orchestrate a long and eloquent prayer. He is my Father, sitting right beside me. Why would I send a letter in the mail to my roommate knowing she was right there all along? I guess its kind of the same concept for me.

It makes the times I listen to worship songs in the car so different.

"When I think about the Lord, how He saved me, how He raised me..."
When I sing those words, in my thoughts I can speak to Jesus beside me and say, When I think about You Jesus, about the day You saved me, how You raised me. The real deal Jesus is sitting next to me, smiling as I shower Him with that praise. I reflect on my salvation story with the one who saved me...it makes it so much more meaningful and my heart just flutters. Before when I would think of that, I would sing it thinking of Jesus, reflecting on how awesome He is, but not consciously thinking, "Jesus, your sitting here and I want to tell you that this is my heart song to you."

It's kind of like the difference between me singing a corny Michael Buble song to Reed and singing it by myself while thinking of Reed. Singing with him next to me makes it so much more intimate...as if you can hear the heartbeat of our love.

I'm working on this in my relationship with Christ. God is so good and so incredibly faithful to continue to teach me this, to broaden and increase my definition of a "relationship with Christ".

I'm not sure where the Lord is taking me with it from here and I'm honestly not sure how much of this makes much sense to anyone else reading. The difference between how things were and how I am looking at them now are so DRASTICALLY different, but explaining the difference feels like I'm splitting a fine hair...So I understand if its not especially easy to understand what the heck I'm rambling about.

Kind of off topic a bit, but I need prayer for transformation of my time in the Word. I am hungry for true meaning out of the Word, but sometimes I can get intimidated and feel as if I'm not getting the full meaning and depth out of it. I am learning this cool new way of reading the bible that has been really fruitful (it's called the inductive bible study method), but I'm not completely sure how to do it just yet, so I'm still yearning and grasping for the fullness of the Word. God will grant us the desires of our hearts and I know He will be faithful.