To Receive Life
That thought, that idea. That attitude and right, that you carry. As your standard of behaviour and justice. As your standard of expectation and righteousness. For yourself, for others, for that person in your life. For your life. It steals your devotion. It does.
Because when you hold tight to your expectations, it happens, you build your high places. And the tighter you hold to those standards, the higher you lift them up. And it happens, your worship of idols happens, in you, because you build your high places, and you hold them high, even higher than God. By holding tightly to them.
For it is always that way: what you expect from others, what you expect from yourself, that is what pulls you away from God. It is. That is what pulls your devotion, your worship, away from God. And away from His life.
And idol worship happens.
For it is life you are trying to receive from your expectations, from what was never meant to give life. From your high places, you are really seeking for life outside of Christ. All along.
And to admit that. To acknowledge that you were looking for life on your own. To confess that you were looking somewhere other than to God for life. To admit that you were sinning against God and God alone in your efforts to somehow gain life by your standards, by your idols. That, is the only way to receive life.
Because the moment you confess, is the moment you can receive. Christ. And Christ is life. To you and for you and in you and through you. Christ is Life.
And your devotion turns to Him and Him alone, as you turn your eyes off of your standards and expectations that only fail and disappoint, and back onto Christ.
Your running back to Him is your way to life. And your devotion to Christ alone declares Christ as your Life!
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"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." - 1 John 1:9
"Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." - Romans 10:9
"For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified." - 1 Corinthians 2:2