Mindful About Jesus

A friend of mine told me about a course he did to help him see the small things in life again. We become so used to things that we forget to look around us and then we miss out a lot. We live in a trance and life slips by unnoticed.

The course, which is called Mindfulness, helps you to learn again from the start to see the ordinary things around you and to appreciate them again. Just sit quietly for a moment and listen to all the sounds around you.

I did it myself for a while and I heard the birds singing, rustling leaves, and an airplane. When the airplane was gone, I could hear a dove cooing. Rushing through life makes us deaf to small things. We no longer see the miraculous. We no longer believe, because something else has taken over what we used to believe and pushed it aside.

This is nothing new. Even the writer of Hebrews realised that the readers were no longer mindful about the miracle of Jesus, and, therefore, he repeatedly explains the enormous sacrifice that Jesus had made:

27Unlike the other high priests, he doesn’t have to offer sacrifices for his own sins every day before he can get around to us and our sins. He’s done it, once and for all: offered up himself as the sacrifice. The law appoints as high priests men who are never able to get the job done right. 28But this intervening command of God, which came later, appoints the Son, who is absolutely, eternally perfect.

The old way of getting rid of the punishment for our sin didn’t work out. It was temporary and had to be repeated over and over again. Every now and then an animal had to be sacrificed. The animal had to be punished in place of the people. But after a short while there had to be another sacrifice.

To change the temporary nature of the sacrifice into a permanent one, the sacrifice had to be perfect, without sin, holy, set apart for God. Jesus was the only candidate, and, fortunately, thank God, He agreed to be the sacrifice.

We so often miss the enormity of this act. We don’t realise what a major deal it was. And that’s why we have to force ourselves to be mindful about it. We must sit down and take ourselves back to Golgotha. We must read the Scripture again and again to realise how perfect the sacrifice was. The we will be overcome with joy and our way of walking through life will be different.

Jesus’ sacrifice was enough for God. It is also enough for all the times you’ve messed up. Keep this at the forefront of your mind all day and then live differently.

Scripture

Hebrews 7:1-28

Reflection

What sacrifice do you have to make to pay for all your messing up?

Is Jesus’ sacrifice bigger than your messing up?

Can you be excited about Jesus’ sacrifice again?

Prayer

Lord Jesus, if not for You, I would’ve been in big trouble! Thank you for being the perfect sacrifice for my sin! Thank you for setting me completely free! Amen.