The Missing Piece
“You are my witnesses,” declares the LORD, “and my servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me. I, I am the LORD, and besides me there is no savior.” —Isaiah 43:10-11
I was recently visiting a friend who had been working on a 550 piece “Where’s Waldo” puzzle. She got all the way to the end and realized she was missing just one little piece.
That little missing piece got me thinking about some people that I love dearly who I think are missing just one piece of the puzzle. These are good, moral people. Most of these people even believe in God. But I have no reason to believe that these people in my life have had that initial moment of brokenness where they’ve realized their sin and recognized their need for a Savior.
It wouldn’t be an earth-shattering change for these people to turn their lives over to Christ and live full-out for Him, but for some reason there just hasn’t been the connect from their heads to their hearts. There HAS to be that moment in a person’s life where they decide to choose Christ — the missing piece.
If we’re honest, I think we all have nights when we crawl into bed and we think back on our day and we realize that there were moments (sometimes even hours) when we were far from dependent on Christ and relying a whole lot more on ourselves. I don’t know about you but I don’t find that ever works out too well for me. I KNOW my need for a Savior, but I fall into forgetting that as I get caught up in thinking that I’ve got things under control.
My moment happened at the end of January 2000, sitting at my desk doing homework. I have no idea what triggered it other than the Holy Spirit. I was so struck with how far I had walked away from Christ and how desperately I needed Him in my life that I was brought to my knees—broken over my sin and incredibly thankful for God’s grace in my life.
To ensure you’re not missing the piece, try this:
1. Commit to daily time in the Word.
2. Commit to daily times of prayer asking for complete dependence on Christ.
3. Evaluate the day for times when not depending on Christ.
4. Make a plan and get accountability.
5. Live it out.
Working on these things will go far toward keeping us in a place of dependency on Christ, the Lord, our Savior. —Todd Dugard
Journal:
· When was my “moment?”
· How do I daily live out that moment?
Prayer: Father God, I desperately need You in all areas of my life. How foolish of me to think that I can accomplish anything without You. Help me to stay in that place of dependence on You. Keep fresh in my memory the moment when I first truly understood my need for Christ as my Savior. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
