Looking for yourself?

I had another moment in my Bible reading the other day that just made think about life differently. I came across a familiar verse in the book of Matthew. Verses 38-39 say..."And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it." Every morning, I read from the Message, its a modern day translation of the Bible, that helps me just to grasp the meaning a little better, it renders these verses as "If you don't go all the way with me, through thick and thin, you don't deserve me. If your first concern is to look after yourself, you'll never find yourself. But if you forget about yourself and look to me, you'll find both yourself and me." As you can see it puts a little twist to it, but the integrity of message is still there, and for me, it takes these familiar verses and helps me to think outside the box on what Jesus might have for me.

I do have several friends that try to find themselves, they try to find meaning to their lives outside the realm of God. I will also admit that I have too, I have tried to find meaning to my life from a lot of different angles. But only one works. You have to view life from the advantage point of the Creator God. God created us all, don't believe me, read Psalm 139, and He created us for a purpose. He longs for us to live for Him and point others to Him. To be obedient to what He has called us to in His scriptures. The Message nails an awesome thought, if your number one concern is you, who you are, your identity, you will get very frustrated trying to find yourself. Why, because you are forever changing. The world is forever changing, therefore you, as part of that world will change. But, if you are a believer, the scripture says, that you are not of this world. Does that mean we are not to change? Absolutely not, we are to constantly be changing ourselves into a sharper image of Christ, the big word for that is sanctification. However, we do not change directions, we are always moving forward not backwards or just being stagnant.

The Message continues to say "But if you forget about yourself and look to me, you'll find both yourself and me." There it is, the secret to happiness. There it is, the secret to life. Just look to God. When we look to God, He reveals to us the path we are to follow. Proverbs 3:5-6 says...
"Trust God from the bottom of your heart;
don't try to figure out everything on your own.
Listen for God's voice in everything you do, everywhere you go;
he's the one who will keep you on track."

I love that, and it is so true, seek out God and you will find Him (Jer. 29:13). And God will also take you on a journey in which He will reveal to you exactly who you are, and why you are here on this earth?