“But he was pierced
for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that
brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like
sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has
laid on him the iniquity of us all” Isaiah 53:5-6, NIV).
Jesus' sacrifice is
what offers us a personal God, but it is your “yes” in absolute surrender that
gives you a personal relationship with Him. It is the only thing that does make
God personal. He, who knew no sin, became sin in order that each person could be
set free from sin's control in our lives. God laid on Jesus Christ all of our
sins, and He took them to the cross for you and for me. You can't get much more
personal than that! He absolutely surrendered himself for mankind. He gave his
life and bore our sins so we might be healed and made whole. He surrendered his
life for us. Such love calls for a response from you and me. You can't ignore
such a sacrifice. You either accept it or reject it. If you accept it and
surrender to Him, you discover the incredible depth of His love that gave all
for you. If you reject it, you lose the greatest love ever offered.
What is your
response? What is mine? Do we allow Him just a little of ourselves, and reserve
our total commitment? We want to approach Him. We want to come boldly before Him
in our time of need, but we don’t want to make our own absolute surrender and
sacrifice. Perhaps we want to hold on to a gift or even a calling, but He asks
us to lay everything down for His sake...just as He laid all down for our sake.
Sometimes we must lose the gift or the calling or whatever is important to us to
understand that those things are not what really matter. He is what really
matters. He is what is important.
If we take our eyes
off His sacrifice, we lose everything. If we say “no” we lose everything. If we
lay down all that we have and all that we are, and place Him above everything
else, we discover a personal God beyond human imagination. We discover the
greatest love ever offered. And it is ours.
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