In Christ Alone

I am so excited to be a guest blogger for Holly this month of May (May = Holly’s birthday month = prizes for 31 days). I’m even more excited to have the opportunity to write on a topic that the Lord has been stirring in me for months now, which is finally coming to a place of the Lord being not only enough but more than what anything in this world can offer. I’m 22 years old, single (probably until Kingdom come), just beginning a full-time job of teaching, and recently the Lord has placed a calling for missions in Honduras on my heart.

 

Immediately when I was given the opportunity to go to Honduras this summer I became overwhelmed with excitement, my mind flooded with possibilities, and my heart leaped at the thought of what the Lord had waiting for me in a foreign land. I had close friends who challenged me with the question, “What if God called you to move to Honduras?” My mind immediately pumped the brakes like a scene from Fast and Furious 42, “Woah, woah, woah, I haven’t even got to Honduras yet. What about my family, my home church, my friends, my job, everything in my community keeps me rooted?” A few days later I went hiking at Crowders Mountain on a dreary Saturday morning. When I got to the top of the mountain there was no view, everything that surrounded me was white and misty, like sitting in the middle of a cloud. I found myself completely alone at the mountaintop, no view of beloved Gaston County, just nothing. Somehow in that very moment, I felt the Lord’s presence so THICK around me, like a cloud, like a mist just saturating me. I knelt down to use a rock as an altar and began to pray, “God I don’t care what it looks like, I don’t care what has to be removed from my life, all I want is everything you have for me. I know that everything you have for me is more than what I could dream or conspire on my own, so take anything that keeps me from pursuing you, Amen.”

 

“The lord is my shepherd I lack nothing, He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the darkest valley I will fear no evil for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me” (Psalm 23:1-4)

Some days look a lot like green pastures and still waters, while other days sincerely feel like you’re literally walking through the darkest valley, but regardless of your location, God is ever-close and near. Despite our circumstances, God is wholesome, complete, unrelenting, abundant, and He lacks nothing in Him. Because my God lacks nothing, because He is unrelenting and steadfast, I will lack nothing.

 

God never intended us to lead a life of surviving until we enter the glory of His Kingdom, God desires us to inherit Him in full on Earth. We can experience the overflow of God in our lives whether it is by quiet waters or in the dry wilderness; God always makes Himself accessible to us.

 

More often than not when we’re in the valley we’re so susceptible to viewing God as a “pet rock.” (I know that pet rock is a terrible comparison and minimizes God character, but just go with it for the time being). We view God as someone who is with us, He’s there for us to vent or cry out to, but sometimes we feel as though He isn’t doing anything for us or we don’t hear from Him. If we’re honest, God isn’t enough to us a lot of times in the valley.

 

However, the problem never was that God is in the shape of this “rock.” God is flawless, wholesome, perfect, and accessible in the pastures or in the valley. His character is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). Our PERCEPTION of God limits the evidence of Him in our life; our perception distorts our vision to only view God as a “pet rock” rather than experiencing the fullness of God as the cornerstone in our lives.

 

In the dry desert, the Israelites cried out in thirst, God provided for them in the form of rocks. In their desperation, God was accessible at all times; rocks surrounded them everywhere for the opportunity for their thirst to be quenched. Moses struck the rock and water gushed out for the community and livestock to drink (Numbers 20).

 

In our battle, or in our cry out from desperation through the valley, or in our green pastures of jubilation, GOD IS OUR EBENEZER, which means that He is our stone of help. We’ve limited God to be a pet rock in our desert, when He’s the stone that provides for us in every capacity. Our environment can never define God’s character. God will supply your every need in every environment. He is always enough, He’s always accessible, He’s always near, and He’s always longing to pour Himself out to us in abundance.

 

Christ is our cornerstone. Just like Moses struck the rock to pour out water in our desperation of thirst, Christ was the stone that was struck so that His blood would pour out in the midst of our sin. He is our stone, our rock of foundation that sustains us, we can trust to build our lives on His foundation. He’s steadfast as He pours Himself out to us unrelenting, flowing to satisfy us. That love can never just be enough for us, that love is ABUNDANT. God is not enough for me. God is ABUNDANT for me. He is abundantly more fulfilling than my self-satisfaction of comfort, He is abundantly more sovereign than my fear of the unknown, and He is abundantly more than anything this world could offer me. I shall not want more because no matter what my fleshly desires may yearn for, EVEN IF the world could offer me these things in a limitless amount, My God offers more, He is more, He longs for me to be fulfilled with me. The world can only fill you and I up to the brim, but HE OVERFLOWS in abundance. Our God has an inheritance for us to implore while on Earth that is more vast, more mighty, and more empowering than anything this world may offer me. The things of this world lead to death but what God has to offer brings LIFE (Romans 6:23).

 

So my question proposed to you is this: What has you filled to the brim that disables God from pouring more of Himself into you? When you’re challenged to make that bold step in faith, what makes your heart sink to retreat from His will? We have to empty ourselves of those things that are ultimately unsatisfying so that God can pour out His abundance to us.

 

“His divine power had granted to us all things that pertain to LIFE and GODLINESS, through the knowledge of Him who called us to His own glory and excellence” (2 Peter 1:3).

 

Christ is our cornerstone. He provides for us in every environment, He not only sustains us, but He relentlessly overflows His gifts upon us for us to implore on Earth. Salvation, our deliverance from the corruption of this world, is granted to us so that we can thrive in His promises, in His provision, in His hope, and most of all, so that we can experience His love and glory in its fullness whether we are in the midst of the valley or lying down in green pastures. God is more than enough, we lack nothing, and yet He loves us so much that in His abundance, He pours Himself out to us so that we gain all things that pertain to life right here, right now.

 

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IT’S GIVEAWAY TIME!!!!