Lent Day 39: We Are an Offering (VI)

Good morning to you, my friend, on this thirty-ninth lenten morning! 

Tomorrow, if we are still alive, we will celebrate Palm Sunday and on Monday, God willing, we will begin walking through Holy Week leading to Easter Sunday. I can hardly contain my excitement thinking ahead.

Still, today is still today. 

I get to walk with the Father today.

I get to wait with the Holy Spirit today.

I get to win over sin and death in Christ today.

This lenten journey has been reminding you and me that as long as we have breath in us, we are invited to focus and refocus our lives on the Godhead. We are gently beckoned to prepare ourselves to receive the power of Christ's death and resurrection. We are urged to offer ourselves completely, wholeheartedly, and sacrificially.

In fact, the lenten chorus We Are an Offering calls us to surrender . . .

     -  to lift our voices

     -  to lift our hands

     -  to lift our lives

 . . . and to offer all that we have . . .

Today, we are focusing on the next line:

All that we are . . .

Who are we? 

Often, we look to our emotional makeup and the catalog of our faults and failures to answer this question. Consequently, we allow some common lies to poison our thoughts, such as, “I will never be as good as so and so,” “I am all alone,” “If I could have more money all my problems would be solved,” “Nobody loves me,” “I have nothing to offer; I am a loser, a hopeless cause.”

Other times, we tend to categorize ourselves and others by nationality, skin and hair color, height, social standing, size of bank accounts, and academic pedigree among others. Based upon accolades and awards we receive, we may become puffed up—relishing the distinction and recognition such categorizing affords. 

Both scenarios mentioned above represent a compartmentalizing practice that confuses our hearts and minds, hindering us from offering to the Father all that we truly are. Having been “created in [God’s] own image . . .” (Genesis 1:27), we are called to offer our whole selves to the Father just as Christ spared no expense on our behalf to reconcile fallen humanity to the Father. As it is said, “There is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all people” (1 Timothy 2:5-6).

So, who are we? 

More personally, who am I?

I am loved.

I am special.

I am forgiven.

I am God’s child.

I am washed clean.

I am saved by grace.

I am the apple of His eye.

I am a joint heir with Christ.

I am filled with the Holy Spirit.

I am a member of God’s family.

I am dead to sin and alive in Christ.

I am standing upon God’s promises.

I am enriched in the Lord in every way.

I am strengthened by the power of Christ.

I am called into intimate fellowship with Jesus.

I am God’s special workmanship, His masterpiece.

I am designed in Christ Jesus to perform good works.

I am cherished by Abba because of His everlasting love.

I am crucified with Jesus Christ; therefore, I no longer live.

I am perfectly united in mind, heart, and thought with Christ.

I am pure, righteous, set apart, completely forgiven, and satisfied.

I am not at all ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God.

I am called to do good works, which Christ prepared in advance for me to do.

I am approved, rescued, redeemed, blessed, anointed, handpicked, purified, and sanctified.

I am chosen to worship Christ, the Radiance of God’s glory.

I am wholly His and His alone.

Yes.
You and I are His.

Our identity is inherently linked to the work of Jesus. I recently heard a Bible teacher express it this way: “The Son of God became the Son of Man so that the sons [and daughters] of men [mankind] can become the children of God.” As children of God, the Father expects no less from us than our all—“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength” (Mark 12:30).

Just like Jesus gave His heart (love) to the Father, we who are co-heirs with Christ are to give our hearts to the Father—affections, allegiance, and attention. As Christ committed His soul/spirit into the hands of the Father, we, too, are to commit our sense of self to God—psyche, emotion, and identity. As Christ surrendered His mind to the instruction of the Father, we who have accepted His lordship have been given the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:11-16) in order that our thoughts, dreams, and decisions may bow under the influence of the Holy Spirit. And as Christ offered His body as a perfect sacrifice, may all the members of our body be used as instruments of righteousness to the glory of the Father. 

May we, the children of God, be mindful of who we are in our worship forever!