Center Stage Of My Life
1 Peter 1:21 Amplified Bible (AMP)
21 Through Him you believe in (adhere to, rely on) God, Who raised Him up from the dead and gave Him honor and glory, so that your faith and hope are [centered and rest] in God.
When I was in a play years ago being center stage meant you were the main focus and the center of all the attention. It meant that all eyes would be focused upon you to see what you would perform. When I think of the center of anything, I think of something or someone that is strategically placed in the middle and everything else surrounds it. As I read through scriptures today, I noticed that in God’s Word He has emphasized the center of many things to include, the Garden of Eden, the center of Jerusalem, the center of the Throne of God and He even spoke of taking a child into the center of the group of disciples; God even advised us that the wisdom of advice or words spoken should be maintained at the center of our hearts’. Richard Smallwood wrote a song, years ago, “The Center of My Joy.” When I began to understand God better, I understood that in Richard Smallwood’s song, that the center meant that joy for him and many of us would be minimal or non-existent without Jesus occupying that place in the center.
Who is center stage in your life? If it is true that the center is so important to life and living and it represents the focus and the main attraction, why are so many of us trying to reside in that space when it is such a great place of responsibility and power that we can far from handle? God remind us in Exodus 34:14, this “For you shall worship no other god; for the Lord, Whose name is Jealous, is a jealous (impassioned) God.” If we are trying to get people to pay attention to us, so much so that they are taking their eyes off of God, have we placed ourselves in a place of becoming an idol, and making ourselves the center of attention? God desires that we keep Him in the center of our lives, not attempting to become the star of story, taking Him out of the equation or lessening His contribution or His status. It is great that we understand who we are, but we must understand that all that is good in us comes from God, it is He that has made us not we ourselves. In Acts 17: 28 it says, “For in Him we live and move and have our being; as even some of your [own] poets have said, For we are also His offspring.” All glory goes to God, not us, because it is in God alone that we are made capable, able and successful; it because of God that we have what we have and live where we live. The newest controversy within the campaign is the Republican candidate is saying that the President did a disservice to people like Steve Jobs and Henry Ford, when He said they did not get where they were alone. I am sorry to say President Obama is right, no man is an island unto himself, God gave the insight and the knowledge and I am certainly sure that there were people that helped to aid their success.
When people look at your life, at the very center of it who do they see? Do they see you screaming to be seen or heard; dominating the stage to gain fame and attention or do they see God through Jesus and your living guided by the Holy Spirit? We have to remain humble and not to be boastful; we should not to be the one jumping up and down saying look at me, look at me. We should be quick to point the finger, and it should be pointing heavenward, in acknowledgement of God. God should be the one center stage in our lives. We should be content to be His co-star, but never seek to outshine Him or down play His relevance in our lives and especially our successes. When people look at us and speak with us they should barely see us, but they should see the God in us shining through and identifying that Jesus really is the center of not just our joy, but our lives!
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