I Found My Life When I Laid it Down
“As the deer longs for streams of water, so I long for you, O God.” (Psalm 42:1, NLT)
I don’t think I have ever read anything more beautiful, pure, challenging, and fulfilling than what this verse says. Just think about that: as a deer longs for his source of life– water– so I long for my God. It’s basically saying that God is our one and only source of not just life, but life to the absolute fullest.
In reality we get ourselves caught up in so much more than God. We long to give all of ourselves to Him, but each day we find ourselves fighting the battles the world throws at us, and sometimes even battles we throw at ourselves. How beautiful must it be to live a life JUST for God! How amazing must that feel– to have 100 percent of your hope in Jesus alone, to know you’re safe, secure, and loved so deeply. To cast all of your burdens, worries and anxieties onto Him. To know there is someone always there to counsel you and to hold you up through the fire.
So let's start here: where are you putting your hope today if you're not putting it in Jesus?
Are you putting all your hope and self worth into that new college experience coming up? What that hot guy or girl is telling you? Are you putting your hope in your grades, your money? What is stealing the attention in your life that God is only deserving of? I can guarantee you that that relationship, that school, that promotion, that money is not going to fulfill your soul the way Jesus does. The deer didn’t long for 50% water, 20% apples and 30% acorns, the deer longed for what was going to sustain him and what had the biggest pull on his heart.
Trade your unfulfilling desires for Jesus. I can promise you that a guy or girl isn’t going to make your world all you want it to be. Those clothes and that car are only going to make you happy until you need more. Stop living a life of constant desperation and desire and lay it all down at the Perfect One’s feet. Yeah, I know that is a huge step, but if you’re living your life through your social media account or another person, are you even living?
God calls us to do big things, but He never calls us to do it on our own. Giving more and more of yourself to God is a daily battle but each time we give more of ourselves to Him, we experience more of who He is. Each day we have a choice to surrender to the lover of our soul or to the things the world determines our value by. The Savior’s love is worth it all. There is so much I have learned and so many ways I have grown by becoming vulnerable with Jesus, through giving him everything I used to define myself by, by giving him my heart forever.
So, here comes the next question: How do I start giving over these things to God that I know are holding me back?
One of my favorite songs, Touch The Sky by Hillsong United, describes the whole process of how to give our all to God and the incomparable love we receive from him through that. (I’m putting a link of the song below because it’s just that good.)
This song just has such a raw and beautiful way of describing what it is to surrender, how action falls into place and the journey our hearts take in the presence of Jesus. One of my favorite lines is “I found my life when I laid it down.” The key to giving Jesus all of you is giving Him the attention He deserves and getting the God time you need. Its putting on worship music in the car and casting aside all your worries. It's praying to Him in all situations you’re facing. Its reading His word and letting it saturate your soul in His truth. Its being genuine and real in all that we do in our relationship with Him, because the beautiful thing is He speaks into our hearts through all of that.
We are so undeserving of how God just infiltrates every part of our lives; how He loves and cares, and how He longs to be our best friend. Don’t expect to be perfect through the process because that is not the focus and that’s not possible. The focus is to draw deeper in your relationship with God. It’s to long for Him as much as a deer longs for water. Give Him the time of day. Be vulnerable in worshiping him, reading his word, and letting him dig deeper so he can sprout beauty from your brokenness.
We are all longing for something more. We all have that hole in our hearts. Fill it with the king of your heart, the one who loves you most; he will revive you this morning.
