The Overflow Devo by Lecrae (Day 6 of 8)

"If Christ is not valued above all, Christ is not valued at all." —Augustine

To me, these must be among the most cutting yet beautiful words ever written. Jesus looks so glorious in this statement! Yet for many, this statement comes off as anything but glorious but more like "unnecessary" or quite frankly, arrogant.

After tweeting something along these lines a few months back, there was a young lady online who wasn't too fond of this type of talk. She responded (along with some other colorful words) "Your God sounds like He's on a power trip, I would never want to be with a god like that." And I thought, is God on a power trip? Or is He, like many folks say, just laying down a bunch of restrictions to suck the fun out of life? No and no. In fact there is no other being in the universe that is more for your joy than the Lord Jesus Christ.

God's demand for our focus to be solely on Him is not harsh but gracious. God is no cosmic Hitler shouting commands but a divine philanthropist who withholds no good thing from His people. "O the happiness of that one, who hath not walked in the counsel of the wicked (Psalm 1:1)." Sin has been disagreeing with this since the Garden of Eden and has always sought to provide its own alternatives. But every alternative proves to be like a trial version that expires quickly, it's gone in a matter of moments. Only God satisfies. Sin can't afford us, we are too high maintenance for it to keep us happy. We are made to be filled with the best and that is found exclusively in knowing God.

Augustine wasn't after laying before us an ethic of rules but an ethic of worship. When God is seen, He is worshipped. No one encounters the Living God and casually acknowledges His greatness and then moves on with his/her life. God is too great, too beautiful, too awesome, too attractive to truly be seen and not obsessed over. "Once you've really seen the Lord your obsessed with what you see."

Our only challenge is seeing Him. As you meet with God in His word ask Him to open your eyes to see "the glory of the Lord" and watch how it transforms your life. This is how we overcome sin.

BJ Stockman, a Christian writer, said, "Trying harder and harder to stop looking at porn isn't the way to stop looking at porn — you must look somewhere else, namely, the person of Jesus Christ." And this is not limited to porn but any sinful passion you can imagine can be driven out by a supreme one; a God-given passion of seeing the Lord Jesus.

Set your sights on the Lord Jesus, "black out" on empty promises of this world and "zone out" in the presence of Almighty God.

Prayer: Oh Lord, deal with your servant mercifully. I want your promises to be the joy of my soul and your words to make my heart happy. I cannot do this myself oh God, by your Spirit please graciously grant me the eyes to see, ears to hear and taste buds to savor the wonder of your word. Help me to zone out. Amen.

2 Corinthians 3:18 "But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord."