Lord, Reign in Me

This morning I had the opportunity to share with my home church family as a part of their Christmas sermon series on making Jesus our highest priority.  I shared my story of taking small steps of obedience in pursuing the position at BFA, not fully knowing whether it was what God wanted me to do after graduation.  Putting Jesus first isn't about taking giant steps -- it's about faithfully obeying in the "small moments."  God's calling us to listen for His leading, step into the unknown, and believe that He will work through us.

I also shared the story of my classroom tree (see the previous blog entry), which is a necessary reminder of the importance of spending time with God every day.  Author CJ Mahaney writes, "A cross-centered life is made up cross-centered days."  We must remind ourselves of Jesus' sacrifice and live in light of this truth.  And even when we mess up, God takes our dead branches and makes green leaves grown on them again.

We ended the service today by singing "Lord, Reign in Me," a familiar song with words that struck me anew:  "May my life reflect the beauty of You, Lord / You mean more to me than earthly thing / So won't You reign in me again // Lord, reign in me, reign in Your power / Over all my dreams, in my darkest hour / You are the Lord of all I am."  Amen.