Neurotic and self-absorbed

Fall has definitely arrived here in León, Spain. Or maybe we just moved into early winter? The temperatures have definitely dropped and hours of sunshine are definitely shorter. During the summer, the sun rises very early and doesn't drop until almost midnight. While that is very fun during the summer months, unfortunately during the winter we have much shorter days. The sun doesn't rise until almost 9 am and will drop again by 5 or 5:30 pm. I've noticed that my energy has also dropped and I think this is partly because I have not been as exposed to those sunshiney rays!!

So the other day I grabbed my jacket, sunglasses, and book "Jesus + Nothing = Everything" for a little time of reading and absorbing some Vit D! It was such a great time and I hope to make a habit of this. As I am getting farther into this book, I am being even more challenged and convicted by what I am reading. During this recent reading session, I was challenged to totally re-evaluate my sanctification. These two quotes stood out the most to me...

"What the Bible teaches is that we mature as we come to a greater realization of what we already have in Christ.

The hard work of Christian growth, therefore, is to think less of ourselves and our performance and more of Jesus and his performance for us. Ironically, when we focus mostly on our need to get better, we actually get worse. We become neurotic and self-absorbed. Preoccupation with our effort instead of with God's effort for us makes us increasingly self-centered and morbidly introspective."

Pretty amazing quotes, huh? I realized that so often my sanctification focus is indeed on my performance and not Jesus' performance for me. When I read that sentence about becoming neurotic and self-absorbed, my jaw dropped because this describes me! To me, my areas of sin and weakness sometimes loom so large and overwhelming that I do become so absorbed in trying to change them that I forget Christ's work on the Cross for me. And how this has freed me from being a slave to my sin. His work gives me hope. Not my pitiful attempts to try harder or get better. But, like it says in the first quote, what I already have in Christ!

"And you, who once were alienated and hostil in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard"

Col 1:22-23