I am a Jesus pusher!!! He receives my total admiration. A great challenge to be like Him is contained within this admiration. I am awestruck with the complete humility and meekness I find in Him. Paul described this attitude as he pleaded for us to Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. He gave us great details on the state of this mind. Jesus is God in the highest sense. He experienced no pressure or stress in maintaining who He is as God. But He emptied Himself of all the benefits of this position in order to become a man. He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross (Philippians 2:8). How can one describe this kind of surrender? He died to all He was in Himself and relied totally on the sourcing of the Father.
I am repulsed by every act of self-sourcing within me. Every tendency to hurt feelings, needing my own way, defending my position, or guarding and protecting, only remind me of how unlike Him I really am. Even my attempts to train myself to be like Him are self-sourced. I try to discipline my life to shape it in His image. Does He not want to shape me? Each time I use my energy to produce Christ-likeness, I have wasted energy which could have embraced Him tighter. Oh, for my total focus to be on Him. I cannot live with anything less. I will not reach this reality with more self-sourcing. He must bring me here. I will allow Him to do in me what the Father did in Him. Therefore, the life the Father lived through Him, He will live through me. Could I become the image of Jesus in my world? I am a Jesus pusher!!!