Monday, December 5, 2011

Dance

I went home this weekend to watch my little brother sing and play the cello in three different performances for choir and orchestra.

Sunday morning my pastor mentioned how some people are trying to perform their way into favor with God. He said these people are living a works-based salvation because they have not embraced the fact that Christ has already won God’s favor for us.

Immediately God began to fill my soul with images and whispers He developed throughout the sermon, and even into communion. After taking the elements with my family in remembrance, I touched both hands to the altar and quietly cried to God, “It is finished!”

Several influential friends and family members have spoken the same message to me throughout 2011: Don’t be so hard on yourself, Meghan.

I heard their kind words and appreciated them, but my behavior remained the same. I tried to set myself free from my habit of striving to earn favor with God, and reprimanding myself for robbing Him of His glory or causing Him displeasure.

Do you see the problem with those “solutions”? Oh, I pray you do.

My eyes have been fixed inward instead of upward through all of this. It’s not about me. My salvation was not earned, but given. I have been covered by the blood of the Lamb – that means when God looks at me, He sees my forever High Priest: Jesus Christ – on whom God’s favor lies.

I cannot earn favor with God, nor can I displease Him. It is all finished in Jesus Christ. There is freedom in the cross.

I pray I never forget these precious words the Lord whispered to my soul Sunday morning:

I’m dancing on the stage of an empty auditorium when I hear my Father say, “The show is over, Meghan. My Son has brought it to completion. I am inviting you to step off the stage and dance with me through life into eternity. I know you don’t know the steps, but you do know the rhythm. Listen to my Spirit. Let me lead you in the dance. Freedom is here. Come, dance with me.”