What is it about another person's testimony that can at once make you see your own? Or to see another person being loved by Christ can immediately draw your attention to the fact that you are LOVED by CHRIST.

As I was reading a Rich Mullins article about the Lilies that God clothed, I became aware of this underlying error I have carried in my thinking for several years now. It is the false idea that perhaps I write my own story. That just maybe it is my choices that produce the future of my life. Or the possibility that I clothe myself, I feed myself, and I make my own bed and lay in it. At one point, I came dangerously close to believing in the Deistic worldview - the idea that God has set the world in motion like a wind-up toy, to let it run its own course, having no personal influence on the daily details of my own life.

Let me just say that if you are believing this right now and living like it, ..... well the goodness of God will perhaps lead you to a place where you will discover the riches of his care in your life....at each moment.

Now, I'm not disregarding the importance of human responsibility. Of course - do what you know you should do. And don't do what you know you shouldn't do. That too is God working in the details of your life. That too is your response to the overwhelming love of Christ

What I am referring to is the overall bitter rebellion that takes place when we think that we are alone. That God has left us to our own demise. That if I don't take charge and control my life, nobody will. That drive within you that causes you to lash out, to walk on people, to grab and clutch.

The LOVE OF CHRIST is wholely different. In the love of Jesus Christ, there is this realization that I am held. That I am guided. I am led, directed. I am FREE, I am loved. I am important to someone. All this makes it okay that I might be hungry or naked or that I may not be loved by everyone else. It is Freedom. It is security. It is grace when you find that you have sinned. It is mercy when you realize that you deserve to sleep in the bed you've made, and yet Jesus Christ is cradeling you in His.

You can give to others. You can let go of your own. You can free others. You can forgive others. You can forgive yourself. You can serve others and not yourself.

How deep is the Father's Love for us that we are called His children. Suddenly now all these verses about His personal care of us are flooding my mind and freeing me to live in His love.
Christ be with you
Live in His Love as I pray you are.