What are we seeking?  What is our aim, our goal, our purpose?  Is it like Paul’s, whose aim was to know Christ?  We are told to “seek those things which are above (Colossians 3:1).”  That is probably the answer to every one of our problems! 

Is Christ the center of your home?  Does He have “first place?”  “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you.”  He will take care of all the things you need. You don’t have to worry or strive about anything. 

Listen to the cries of this world, “For me to live is wealth; for me to live is knowledge!”  The young man cries, “For me to live is pleasure.”  The man who desires recognition declares, “I want fame.”  What is the cry of your heart? Fill in the blanks. There is one cry above them all, “For me to live is Christ -  not wealth, not knowledge, not fame, not glory, but Christ.”

Paul would say, “When I travel, it is on Christ’s errands; when I suffer, it is for Christ’s service; when I speak, it is for Christ; and when I write, Christ fills my letters.”  What fills us?  What fills the “letters that we write” by the way we live our lives?

Paul is always practical! He may take us up to heaven, but he brings us down to earth where the rubber meets the road! What you believe, you should be acting. Right living means right acting. Walk your talk! Keep it simple! It’s not a matter of rules and regulations. Do you have to tell somebody who is in love with someone that they have to think about them? Or to be kind to them? No, it just comes out! You watch two people in love...oh, they are kind! Oh, they are thoughtful! Never a bad word! That is like the Christian lifestyle. When you love Jesus, you are going to act right! You are going to love others!

We work out what God has worked in! A peach seed when planted, will become a peach tree. It doesn’t have to read the manual on how to be a peach tree.  A peach seed will become a peach tree! It’s in the DNA!  Likewise, you have Christ in you, and you will become Christ-like! You don’t have to strive, stress, or strain. God is growing a Christ woman!

Our lives should glorify God! We should be a frame to showcase Jesus.  When we look at pictures we rarely look at the frame. We buy the frame to showcase our picture. May our lives “showcase” Christ!

“Not merely in the words you say, not only in the deeds confessed, but in the most unconscious way is Christ expressed! For me, it was not the truth you taught, to you so clear, to me so dim! But when you came to me, you brought a sense of Him! And from your life, He beckons me! From your heart His love is shed; until I lose sight of you and see Christ instead!”

“When God wants to drill a man, thrill a man, skill a man! When God wants to mold a man to play the noblest part! When He yearns with all His heart to create so great and bold a man, that all the world should be amazed! Watch His methods! Watch His ways! How He ruthlessly perfects whom He royally elects! How He hammers him and hurts him, and with mighty blows converts Him! How He bends, but never breaks, when his good He undertakes!”

Contrast Christ and the attitude of Satan! Satan said, “I will ascend. Christ said, “I will descend, go lower, empty myself, even to death on the cross.” Lucifer, not satisfied to be a creature, wanted to create! Jesus was the creator, yet He was willing to become a creature! Christ’s humility is a rebuke to Satan’s pride! 

We see that the sacrifice of Jesus cost Him His whole life. He poured out the last drop of blood! When we are asked to sacrifice, if we really look at the cross, we realize we haven’t made any sacrifices at all! Sometimes we think, “God, I gave up this for you! I gave up that for you!”  But really we haven’t given up anything at all!

F.B. Meyer said, “I used to think that God's gifts were on shelves one above the other and that the taller we grew in Christian character, the more easily we should reach them. I find now that God's gifts are on shelves one beneath the other and that is not a question of growing taller, but of stooping lower and that we have to go down, always down to get His best ones.”

Always be humble, that is the best route! Humility is the most beautiful garment anyone can wear! There is nothing uglier than a proud person.  Andrew Murray said, “Humility is not thinking bad thoughts about yourself; it is just not thinking about yourself at all.” Forget about yourself. “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” John the Baptist said, “I’m not even worthy to untie His shoelaces.”  WOW! Stand next to God and you will be humble! 

“I do not work my soul to save! That work my Lord has done! But I will work like any slave for love of God’s dear Son!”  Paul put Jesus to the test and found that He is enough. Put Jesus to the test, and you will find that He is enough.  Seek Him first.  Make it your prayer to say with Paul: to live is Christ!

We Would See Jesus,

Karen Pulley