My Worth Comes From Christ and Christ Alone
I've been reading Mary Beth Chapman's book "Choosing to See". I feel as if I have walked through the tragic loss of their sweet Maria with them. Her book has been touching as well as challenging. She shares the story that God has been writing for her from the time she was young by opening up about her perfectionist tendencies, her battle with depression, and her honest thoughts and emotions in regards to the devastating accident that took the life of her youngest daughter and deeply affected her son.
The following quote was from the chapter where Mary Beth writes about her depression. But these things she shares are true in general and something I want to remember.
(Trials) are "an opportunity to acknowledge to God that He (is) literally my only hope. In the darkest, loneliest times in the middle of the night, I realized that Christ is truly all I have. I realized that everything else - everything - is fleeting.
If I put my security or peace of mind in my husband, children or home, I would only continue to wrestle with life and how out of control it felt. I'd already seen how a home and possessions can burn, and I knew that no matter how precious a relationship with a loved one is, it can be lost in a moment of tragedy.
I also knew quite clearly that I couldn't rest my hope or security in how I looked or how productive I was, or anything else that had to do with my hardworking, churning, anxious personality. If my outlook was dependent on me and how together I was, I'd have no peace.
I had to realize that this burden was way too heavy to carry alone. All I had to do was the hardest thing possible for a person like me: I just had to be willing to give up control and give in to Him, and let Him use this cross in my life.
This was passive in the sense that I had to give up my will, but active in the sense of the action that it required.
The essential transformation inside of me would not come through my hard work, but as a gift of grace from God Himself.
Real success in the kingdom of God is not about being strong and looking good and knowing all the right answers. It's about continually yielding oneself to Jesus and determining to take purposeful little steps of obedience, and the ragged reality that it's all about God and His grace at work in us.
I have to get my worth from Christ and Christ alone.
He is the One who will cause our stories to ultimately end secure and well, right in His arms."
-Choosing to SEE; Mary Beth Chapman; pp. 67-71
The following quote was from the chapter where Mary Beth writes about her depression. But these things she shares are true in general and something I want to remember.
(Trials) are "an opportunity to acknowledge to God that He (is) literally my only hope. In the darkest, loneliest times in the middle of the night, I realized that Christ is truly all I have. I realized that everything else - everything - is fleeting.
If I put my security or peace of mind in my husband, children or home, I would only continue to wrestle with life and how out of control it felt. I'd already seen how a home and possessions can burn, and I knew that no matter how precious a relationship with a loved one is, it can be lost in a moment of tragedy.
I also knew quite clearly that I couldn't rest my hope or security in how I looked or how productive I was, or anything else that had to do with my hardworking, churning, anxious personality. If my outlook was dependent on me and how together I was, I'd have no peace.
I had to realize that this burden was way too heavy to carry alone. All I had to do was the hardest thing possible for a person like me: I just had to be willing to give up control and give in to Him, and let Him use this cross in my life.
This was passive in the sense that I had to give up my will, but active in the sense of the action that it required.
The essential transformation inside of me would not come through my hard work, but as a gift of grace from God Himself.
Real success in the kingdom of God is not about being strong and looking good and knowing all the right answers. It's about continually yielding oneself to Jesus and determining to take purposeful little steps of obedience, and the ragged reality that it's all about God and His grace at work in us.
I have to get my worth from Christ and Christ alone.
He is the One who will cause our stories to ultimately end secure and well, right in His arms."
-Choosing to SEE; Mary Beth Chapman; pp. 67-71
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