Living Life for Christ Alone

 Failure- is it to be feared?    That thing that lurks around every new bend in the road proving my inability.  Failure- is it to be dreaded? As though every meeting with it means I become it?  Live life to avoid it, and we miss the point. Isn’t life to be lived with Jesus?  Live life as if it doesn’t exist, and we find ourselves sorely disappointed when we meet it again. Is all of life supposed to be perfection?  But failure- doesn’t it prove a point?    One we’d never learn if we never failed?    One we’d never understand if all were always right?  For failure proves our need.  It proves again that our self confidence is not enough to carry us through and that this fallen world still can pull us down. It can bring us to our knees and force us to lift our eyes off of ourselves in the search of One who cannot fail.  If we were brave enough, we might embrace failure as a friend.  For failure teaches us what succes...

“Here,” she whisper ed , voice shaky from carrying a heavy weight. “Hope this makes you happy.”   She drop ped it at His feet and turn ed around, hurrying to leave the room, wondering if He was even in the slightest bit pleased with her .   “Wait,” He call ed , but she d id not hear.   She le ft the room shaking her head, wondering why she was even trying to bring these gifts to Him –obedience to His laws, sacrifice, service , worship ...? She fe lt no pleasure in it. It fe lt dry a nd meaningless, like she was merely putting on a show for Someone who c ould see right through it.   He kn ew she ha d no pleasure in these things. She d id them because she fe lt she must, almost as if doing so somehow would appease Him.   But inwardly, her heart was dying...   And had she for a moment looked up into His face, she would have seen a very different facial expression than she was inwardly expecting.   She remember ed back in the day...