The simple things are most precious

:: What Am I Looking At? Oswald Chambers January 22, 06

Do we expect God to come to us with His blessings and save us?  He says -- Look unto Me, and be saved.  The great difficulty spiritually is to concentrate on God, and it is His blessings that make it difficult.  Troubles nearly always make us look to God; His blessings are apt to make us look elsewhere.  The teaching of the Sermon on the Mount is, in effect--Narrow all your interests until the attitude of mind and heart and body is concentration on Jesus Christ.  "Look unto Me."

Many of us have a mental conception of what a Christian should be, and the lives of the saints become a hindrance to our concentration on God.  There is no salvation in this way, it is not simple enough.  "Look unto Me" and -- not "you will be saved," but "you are saved."  The very thing we look for, we shall find if we will concentrate on Him.  We get preoccupied and sulky with God, while all the time He is saying, "Look up and be saved."  The difficulties and trials--the casting about in our minds as to what we shall do this summer, or tomorrow, all vanish when we look to God.

Rouse yourself up and look to God.  Build your hope on Him.  No matter if there are a hundred and one things that press, resolutely exclude them all and look to Him.  "Look unto Me," and salvation is, the moment you look. 

Isaiah 45:22

Look up and be saved.  One can not get much simpler than that.  And it is this that I refer to when I mention the "simplicity in Christ."  For many it is just too simple to get ones head around.  How can it possibly be that simple?  There's got to be more to it.  There is not.  There are no rituals, or promises, or magic to be performed.  We can truly build our home on Him.  We can take God at His word.  Stop striving, clawing, clamoring, for proof of our salvation.  Simply take God's his Word, as truth, a matter of fact.  Look unto Him in spite of our preconceived notions as to what a Christian looks like or sound like.

May we all narrow our interests until the attitude of our hearts, minds and bodies are concentrated on the simplicity in Christ.  "Look unto Him and be saved."  Anything else is less and from the pit.

Living simply and for Him,

Sherri