Like the Layers of an Onion...

Isn't our Christian walk like the layers of an onion? Just when we think we are understanding something, a deeper layer is revealed and we realize that there is so much more to it all...we just keep peeling back layers as we grow and learn and study God's word.

This summer has been a layer peeling summer. I've been living my life striving to please the Lord in all I do for most of my life, but it is so amazing that all of a sudden, out of the blue, my eyes are opened to things that I could not see before. A new layer. Sometimes it seems that there couldn't possibly be more to know, and other times it seem as if I know absolutely nothing!! I'm not saying that I ever feel like I know it all or understand it all, but sometimes it is overwhelming as I think about how much bigger God is than me and how I am one tiny speck in His great big world.

We get so focused on our own life and the things that happen around us that we forget that there is a whole world out there. My husband was pondering his prayer life this summer and thinking about how we typically pray beginning with our own self and our own needs then work our way out to the bigger circles like our country and our world. If we pray the other way, beginning with the outer circles, it helps us to keep our perspective. Our problems soon become smaller and our focus is on eternal things rather than the temporal things. Don't get me wrong, we need to be praying for our own life and those close to us, but I do find that if I am not careful, I stay in that little circle of my own world and lose my eternal focus. The little humdrum difficulties of my daily life become huge and overwhelming.

Even in my daily walk with the Lord, I get so caught up in how I'm doing in that area that I lose the focus of my Loving Father. I try to earn His love by doing good, rather than rest in His grace. I still need to strive to please Him, but not in an earthly way. Instead, out of my deep love for my Savior I should want to please Him, not because I think I am supposed to...that doesn't make me any greater in His eyes. There are many good things we do as Christians, but too often we get caught up in those things thinking they will make God more pleased with us. He is pleased with us because of Christ's sacrifice for us. Without Christ's death on the cross, we are nothing. It is not about me. It is all about Jesus. The only reason I can even approach my Loving God is because Jesus died on the cross to bridge the gap between God and man caused by sin. Again, I need to get away from the inner circle of my own self and get my focus on the greater circle of eternity!!

There you have it...some of the layers being peeled back in my life...