Over the last two days, we have been exploring the attributes of people who truly know that they are seated with Christ, as described in the book by Heather Holleman. We learned that seated people adore their Creator and do not worry about their own appearance. We also learned that they don’t obsess over their needs, because they know they have access to the Provider of all things. But Heather shares that, for her, achievement and being recognized (was and sometimes still is) one of the greatest strongholds in her life.
“Once I worked through the beauty and wealth issue with Jesus,” Heather writes, “I still did not know how to live like a seated person because of this lie (about achievement). I believed that I am seated only when I am achieving. I believed I have seat at the table if I receive honor, and importance because of what I accomplish.”
How about you? How do you measure your worth? Do you ask yourself questions like, “Am I a success?” or “Am I important? Do I have a seat with these people in my career?” Heather challenges us, “What if your worth and importance were already decided and not based on what you were accomplishing?”
If you look back on your own life, might you see that you too only felt loved, important, and worthwhile if you were accomplishing something?
In her book, on page 104, Heather quotes Henry David Thoreau, who famously said, “We can spend our whole lives fishing only to discover in the end it wasn’t the fish we were after.”
Truth is, our hearts don’t really want importance. Our hearts crave the righteousness of Christ that declares unconditional acceptance. In Seated with Christ, Heather shared that – before understanding her position as God’s workmanship, the feeling of belonging, of having a seat at the table, became as powerful a drug as anything in the world. She used the example of how she did everything she could to sit at the seat of a bigger and better table. She earned awards and recognition. Early in this process God reminded her that this economy and ranking, comparison, and superiority kept her imprisoned in a state of Self-consciousness and self-absorption. She states that she fought to belong. Until she discovered her true, God-given seat, purchased for her through the shed blood of her Savior and Lord Jesus Christ. Now that she truly has taken her seat with Him, Heather shares,
“Everything about me changes. I’m adoring and not agonizing over my beauty; I’m accessing the riches of God’s kingdom instead of accumulating wealth; and finally, I’m abiding in Jesus instead of exhausting myself with achievement. I replace my fear of missing out with a deep assurance that I’m exactly where I am supposed to be. Here.”
And she encourages all of us that we can know all of those same assurances.
“You are free. The Seat you’ve been fighting for all your life awaits you.”
And once we are seated, the real joy begins! Because then we can embrace another verb to describe ourselves: Sent.
“If we are adoring, accessing, abiding,” Heather shares, “Then we are truly ready to go out and do the work of the Savior who Sent us.”
To learn more about the Sent life of a Christ follower, visit our interview with Heather (HERE). In the meantime, pull up a chair at His table today and every single day of your life. It is there that you will discover how to live a life that really matters and one that is not fighting for your seat but confident in the seat God has assigned you.
— Sue M. Lindsey © September 2021