There was once a preacher who said, “it is as though I am, with my own hands, nailing myself on the cross again.” as she recounts her story of returning back to the Lord after going astray in her twenties.
The eye
Human weaknesses trap us and sinful temptations snatch the position of God in our minds. Our eyes are fixed on what we like, which might be against God. We sneak in a little worldly pleasure and tell ourselves: we will go back to God, later. But where would we have already positioned God in our hearts when we do this?
The eye is the lamp of the body. If the eye is good, then the body would be full of light. Passions and desires fight to plague our minds and hearts daily as we wrestle to cling onto God with the hope of receiving enough strength to complete our day righteously. As we trudge through the day with our spiritual eyes closed, we scramble to find anything but God to cope with this pain and emptiness.
Jesus is worried about you.
My son, give attention to my words;
Incline your ear to my sayings.
Do not let them depart from your eyes;
Keep them in the midst of your heart;
For they are life to those who find them,
And health to all their flesh.
Proverbs 4:20-22
When we don't understand, entrust it to God
God says, “Now, take some time to look at My words, think about them, treasure them, do them, discover joy in them. For they will give you the wisdom to understand Me.”
When we don’t understand why we are going through what we are going through, we step up our efforts to redirect our eye on our loving Father.
Only through this can we observe where we are lacking. As our understanding of God deepens, we gain strength to make appropriate amendments that pleases our Lord.
Some difficulties in life are caused by our inner old man, which has yet to be renewed. The unquenching anger from last week’s dealing with an irresponsible groupmate or colleague, or the little grudge that lingers in our hearts because of someone’s insensitive words. Our mind ruminates on these negative matters and we realise that forgiveness was never easy.
With our own hands and great determination, we drive the hammer down at full force and nail our old selves to the cross. Because we understand that our gentle Jesus is watching how we deal with these not-so-nice emotions. Crucifying the flesh with its passions and desires brings life back to the soul and returns the wondrous joy we were to originally receive if without the flesh (Galatians 5:22-24).
When we let our corrupted inner man perish within us, gradual improvements in character, faith and interpersonal relations surface. Comfort and hope in the faithfulness of our LORD God grows within our hearts and our body grows brighter than before. Because now, we see.
Reflection questions:
God, I’m sorry I have chosen something else over You today. Will You forgive me? Help me to choose You over everything else, every day.
Being crucified is the most painful human experience ever, Christ had done it for me. Can I put down my everything to follow Him?
Humility is putting ourselves down in our hearts, bringing Christ up. What can we do more to deny ourselves?
