How Does Jesus Describe Himself?
“People have it all figured out. No surprises anymore. That is a tragedy. The shock of Christianity has been dulled with a thick layer of familiarity. That is why every morning in my own prayer life I try to get in touch with the panic underneath. Sheer panic. Right under the grace of God is the panic. Every morning I pray that my panic will turn to astonishment, that my astonishment will be transformed into gratitude, my gratitude into repentance, and my repentance into passion. So, it’s panic to passion every morning.” Alan Jones
"The battle of the Christian life is to bring your own heart into alignment with Christ’s, that is, getting up each morning and replacing your natural orphan mind-set with a mind-set of full and free adoption into the family of God through the work of Christ your older brother, who loved you and gave Himself for you out of the overflowing fullness of His gracious heart.” Dane C. Ortlund
"We must silence every creature, we must silence ourselves, to hear in the deep hush of the whole soul, the ineffable voice of the Spouse. We must bend the ear, because it is a gentle and delicate voice, only heard by those who no longer hear anything else.”Francis Fenelon
We’ve talked before about how our image of God influences everything about us, how we must "unlearn" how we see God. In his most wonderful new book, Dane Ortlund says, “The fall . . . entrenched in our minds dark thoughts of God, thoughts that are only dug out over multiple exposures to the gospel over many years. Perhaps Satan’s greatest victory in your life today is not the sin in which you regularly indulge but the dark thoughts of God’s heart that cause you to go there in the first place and keep you cool toward Him in the wake of it” (emphasis mine).
How we think about God lodges not only our thoughts and feelings, but also in our very bodies. If we experience God as a generous and warm mother, for example, our bodies will still and rest, like a weaned baby, full and satisfied (Psalm 131:2). If we think God is taskmaster or unfair judge, we will try harder or hide and blame (the whole Bible).
Just today a friend was telling me about her desire for felt joy and safety in her relationship with God. She has experienced spiritual abuse in the church, colluding with the lies of the enemy. Her “dark thoughts” about God have made their way into her body, so deeply that the whisper of a “try-harder” or “do-more” gospel elicits a suffocating grasp in her chest.
Something shifted today in how she thought about that clench: What was once a concern (“Why am I so physically uncomfortable, unable to breathe?”) has generously become an invitation (“Stop. Listen. Something is not right.”) Asking her about it later, she said, "I have marvelled over the last 24 hours at how subtle that insight came, but how powerful it is. I once saw those sensations as a nuisance, something that I needed to 'get over.' Now, I see it as an asset. That's HUGE!"
My friend’s body—knit carefully and creatively to experience the joy and safety of God—is instinctively providing a shield against the ground Satan seeks to take. It’s as if her body is saying, “No more. God’s unshakeable Kingdom will not allow him an inch of darkness. God’s Kingdom is slowly eclipsing yours, Satan. My God is not a taskmaster. He is gentle and lowly, and His burden is light” (Matthew 11:28).
Over time and exposure to the biblical picture of Jesus, my friend is healing. Her experience of Jesus and His unshakeable Kingdom are rooting and grounding her in His love (Ephesians 3:17).
Ortlund goes on to say that when given the opportunity “to pull back the veil and let us peer way down into the core of who He is . . . , [Jesus’] surprising claim is that He is ‘gentle and lowly in heart.’” The author repeats: “Letting Jesus set the terms, His surprising claim is that He is ‘gentle and lowly in heart.’”
His name tag, His definition in Webster's, His online username--they all say "gentle and lowly in heart."
More Ortlund (because I just can't get enough of this Jesus!):
You don’t need to unburden or collect yourself and then come to Jesus. Your very burden is what qualifies you to come. No payment is required; He says, “I will give you rest.” His rest is gift, not transaction. Whether you are actively working hard to crowbar your life into smoothness or passively finding yourself weighed down by something outside your control, Jesus Christ’s desire that you find rest, . . . outstrips even your own.
That God is rich in mercy means that your regions of deepest shame and regret are not hotels through which divine mercy passes but homes in which divine mercy abides. It means the things about you that make you cringe most, make Him hug hardest. It means His mercy is not calculating and cautious, like ours. It is unrestrained, flood-like, sweeping, magnanimous. It means our haunting shame is not a problem for Him, but the very thing He loves most to work with. It means our sins do not cause His love to take a hit. Our sins cause His love to surge forward all the more. It means on that day when we stand before Him, quietly, unhurriedly, we will weep with relief, shocked at how impoverished a view of His mercy-rich heart we had.
Jesus Christ is comforted when you draw from the riches of His atoning work, because His own body is getting healed.
How might you begin each day eschewing your “natural orphan mind-set” and aligning with Christ’s gracious heart?
What would it mean to you to carry a light burden?
What signs are your body giving you that you might stop and listen to?
JUDY