"Jesus, You're the One that I Love"

Sometimes I think I need to get that tattooed on my hand...How can I keep living as if I've forgotten? All the books I've read, sermons I've listened to, conversations with friends lately have all been about how we are to die to self. Yet I still find myself struggling so much. Some days, I know that Jesus is all I need and want. While others, I try to fill my longing with the empty things of this world--and leave unsatisfied.

Then echoes in my mind and heart,

"What does it profit a man to gain the whole world if he loses his own soul?" (Matt. 16:26)

All of the other things that I wanted in life will never fill me up...they will only leave me empty and searching. I'd give them all up over and over again if He asked me to because Jesus is the One that I love! And what if I gained all that I was striving for (and I probably could)...if I lost my soul in the process?

So, I'm starting over remembering that my one thing is Jesus and that I need wisdom to follow Him in a manner that glorifies Him. James 1:5 might just be my new favorite verse "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways." (James 1:5-8).

I don't want to be double minded and unstable resulting in hurt to myself and others. I can't ask God for wisdom if I don't plan on acting on it. He doesn't respect that fake request.

"The world is no longer our treasure. It is not the source of our life or our satisfaction or our joy. Christ is."-John Piper