This Will Surprise You

“It’s not about you!!!” Surprise!

Not long ago a close friend of mine was musing over his early Christian life. With a grin he told me, “When I used to read the Bible, I read it as if it were about me. I thought I was the main character, not Jesus.” 

I imagine that’s the case for most Christians. How often do we sit with our Bibles, pray a quick prayer, “God, speak to me today,” then randomly open the pages and point to a verse, twisting it to be about us? Our main aim is to get something out of it for ourselves. Unfortunately, after a few failures of Russian-roulette Bible reading, we grow discouraged, and a seed is planted in our hearts, “The Bible isn’t really that relevant.”

Guess what? The Bible isn’t about us. It’s about Jesus. He’s the main character. He’s the hero. We get to share in his victory, but it is totally his victory. We have no claim of heroism, other than through him. Therefore, if we are to be victorious in anything then we must rely solely on him.

Last week I suggested that we learn to receive God’s will by learning to ask the questions: Jesus, what is it that you want? What would please you at this moment? 

As God’s voice penetrates our thoughts and feelings, the next step is to rely on God by asking a question like, “Okay Jesus, would you help me to do this?” This too is recognition of our insufficiency without God.