Just As I Am

I was thinking about a hymn that I used to hear all the time at church, "Just as I am." I can't remember all the words, but the first verse went something like this: "Just as I am, without one plea. But that they blood was shed for me. And that thou bidst me, come to the. Oh Lamb of God, I come. I come."

It's an old world way to say to Jesus that I recognize myself and I recognize Him. I see that I am hopelessly unworthy to be received by Him, and yet that's the exact understanding I need to allow myself to be fully received by Him. He wants me just the way I am - and He wants me to be without any delusion that I am the source of anything.

My pride is really a source of contention here. I trip, almost every day over my overdeveloped sense of self. I often place the gifts that God has given me into a category that is exclusive to me and forget that they're only truly effective when they are surrendered tools used by God.

I was thinking about a story that a couple of my girlfriends told (they're sisters.) They were talking about their cooking abilities, or lack there of, based on the feedback from their husbands. The girls were quite humble in their failure. One has applied herself to learning "gourmet" while the other is content to let her husband be the chef in the family (or order take out - my personal favorite!)

The moral of the story was that their mother never used spices or seasonings in her cooking. As they grew up, they were used to the bland pallet. The husbands, on the other hand, were very aware that something was missing.

That's how it is with us. We don't have what we need to be a "sweet aroma" in and of ourselves. We need the flavorings that can only be added by the saving knowledge of Jesus and the power of being filled by the Spirit. We are living sacrifices, which means that we surrender to this work every day and in every way. That notion is detailed beautifully in Romans 12:1-2. I love the way the Message translation states it:

"So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you."

Come, just as you are, everyday and be filled with the goodness of God to be used by Him in His glorious kingdom!