Day 22

For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

—1 CORINTHIANS 2:2

...let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.

—HEBREWS 12:1-2

We aren’t called to live a “Jesus AND” kind of life. That life is no kind of life at all. We need to put a period after Jesus. Just Jesus.

This Jesus AND thing is subtle and slippery. If we lose vigilance for a moment, it sneaks up on us in the dark and slides into our life. And then things start to feel a “little off”, but we can’t really put our finger on exactly what has gone wrong.

I have fallen for this subtle attack against me so many times and in so many ways. Looking back over the last decade, I realize that I had been living a Jesus AND kind of life. I became wrapped up in my own wounds, and by turning my eyes inward and away from Jesus, I was vulnerable to the subtle ploys of the enemy. And then, with my eyes turned inward, holding tightly to my pain, I crawled up onto the throne of my life where Jesus sat. And because He is a gentleman, He relinquished his seat to me.

The problem was, the throne of my life was made for Jesus and nothing was right in my heart, in my soul, or in my life, until I gave it back to Him.

Are you living a Jesus AND sort of life?

Jesus AND your dreams Jesus AND your things Jesus AND your wounds Jesus AND significance Jesus AND your worries Jesus AND .....

Our enemy would have us believe that the tighter we hold onto our accomplishments, our dreams, our possessions, our identity, the more full our lives will be. Our logic and common sense agree wholeheartedly, but then God comes and says “Let it all go...for whoever loses their life for me will find it” (Matthew 16:25).

Beware of anything that competes with Jesus for the throne of your life.

What are you holding in clenched fists today? What are you filling the Jesus AND blank with? Is it your goals—your dreams of what you want to accomplish in this life? Is it the material things you have or the ones you wish you had? Is it your image—the mask you carefully present to the world? Maybe it’s your wounds that have come to define you, or the cares of this world that so often consume you? It doesn’t matter what comes after the AND, it has to go. He’s calling us today to put a period at the end of Jesus.

“I say to you, do not worry about your life...” Our Lord says to be careful only about one thing—our relationship to Him. Beware of allowing yourself to think that He says this while not understanding your circumstances. Jesus Christ knows our circumstances better than we do, and He says we must not think about these things to the point where they become the primary concern of our life. Whenever there are competing concerns in your life, be sure you always put your relationship to God first.”

—Oswald Chambers

You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you!

—ISAIAH 26:3 NLT