In him alone

Long ago you laid the foundation of the earth and made the heavens with your hands. They will perish, but you remain forever; they will wear out like old clothing. You will change them like a garment and discard them. But you are always the same; you will live forever. (Psalm 102:25-27 NLT)

All things will perish, but the God of the Universe will never perish. His is an eternal reign. His is an eternal existence. We know not of his beginning because he has always been. We will never know of his end because he shall always be. We can count on him because he never changes. All things change around us, but we can be assured his grace and love never changes in spite of what changes might occur around us. We can count on his consistency - something lacking in much of what we see around us today.

All that exists is here because he grants its existence. That includes you and me! We exist because he created us. The more we recognize we were created to commune with him; the sooner we will allow his Spirit to take up that place within us that was designed for his inhabitance. Man is made up of body (the physical), soul (mind, will, and emotions), and spirit (the place of God's presence). The spirit is empty without his presence. We might try to 'fit' something else into that place meant only for him, but everything else will never truly 'fit' in that 'space'.

Things 'wear out'. Fads fade over time. The 'newness' of things will wear off. Then what are we left with? In case you haven't noticed, you are left with something that doesn't quite fulfill you. The only thing left when 'things' or 'people' let us down is to look for another 'fix'. The only true 'fix' is to invite Jesus into that open space within. No 'thing' or 'person' will ever 'fit' into that space - there is no true fulfillment without Christ at the center of our lives.

What does it mean for Christ to truly be at the center of our lives? Does it mean we invite him in, shift him into that weekend churchgoer spot, and then live any way we like during the other six days of the week? Absolutely not! It means we take the steps to remove ourselves from the 'top spot' in our lives. It means we recognize little by little that the choices we have been making have been to find fulfillment in some other means than to truly pursue him with a pure and committed heart. Then we forsake those choices for the only one that matters! Jesus isn't content to be pigeon-holed into 'a space' in our lives - he wants the entirety of our being (body, soul, and spirit) to align with his purposes and to find pleasure in him alone. Just sayin...