Not About Me

Sometimes a lightbulb goes off.  This happened to me 16 years ago when I realized that I could never be good enough for God, except through Jesus. Now I find that even in reading the Bible, I still try to make it about me.  It’s not.  It’s about Jesus.

This post by Nancy Guthrie was such an encouraging reminder for me.  She writes:

If we read the Bible assuming that we are expected to follow in the footsteps of those who are featured in its pages, we will find ourselves always trying harder to sacrifice and obey but never measuring up.

…Why would God ask Abraham to offer his son as a sacrifice? Is God trying to teach us that we should be willing (to) sacrifice what is most precious to us? No. This story is not recorded to inspire sacrifice to God. Instead, it paints in vivid colors the sacrifice of God. The point of this story is not to convince you that you must be willing to sacrifice to God what is most precious to you, but rather to prepare you to take in the magnitude of the gift when you see that God was willing to sacrifice what was most precious to him—his own beloved Son—for you.