Sunday, July 27, 2008

Center Everything in Your Life on Him

"If the beauty of what Jesus did [i.e., dying for us, for our salvation] moves you, that is the first step toward getting out of your own self-centeredness and fear into a trust relationship with him.... He invites you to begin centering everything in your life on him, even as he has given himself for you....

"...when we discern Jesus moving toward us and encircling us with an infinite, self-giving love, we are invited to put our lives on a whole new foundation. We can make him the new center of our lives and stop trying to be our own Savior and Lord.

"We can accept both his challenge to recognize ourselves as sinners in need of his salvation, and his renewing love as the new basis of our identity. Then we don't have to prove ourselves to others. We won't need to use others to bolster our fragile sense of pride and self-worth. And we will be enabled to move out toward others as Jesus has moved toward us."

-- Tim Keller, The Reason for God, p.221 (Dutton 2008)

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