Jesus, All in All- All You Need

All things were created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. Colossians 1:16b-17
Christ is all in all. Colossians 3:11b

All in all… that’s something I could say I’d searched for, something I even longed for in fact. For most of my life, up until recently, my heart yearned, it ached to be whole, complete, not the shattered brokenness I was trying to put back together best I knew how. I thought I knew Jesus, I thought I understood what it meant to look to Him as my all in all. But oh how I’d missed it for so long…

As a little girl, the desire to be full led me to make choices that would cause deep pain. As a teenager, I found myself doing my best to try to cover it up and act as if nothing happened, masking the hurt, the pain, the damage. I could fake it well. I could make it appear like things were great. But inside that nagging, tugging to try to be better and do better so I could be accepted just seemed to constantly slip away. But I kept at it because I could do this, I could change, I could work hard enough to be accepted, valued, and loved. But nothing seemed to give me that full, complete, all in all, my heart so desperately craved. This went on for years…

Until finally, I was tired of trying, tired of continuing to miss the mark, tired of feeling like a failure, invaluable, beat-up, and good for nothing. So I laid myself before Jesus. I cried out to Him. He led me to Colossians 1:16b-17. As these truths washed over me I started to believe His Word as my truth. If it said that ALL things were created through Him and for Him. That all- included me. It includes you too. But not only does it say that we are created through Him and for Him, but that He is before all things. So before I was born, before the hurt, the pain, the issues, He came before it all. So instead of shying away and hiding it, I laid it before Him. I love how this verse ends because it says, “in Him all things hold together.” So that means, all those years when I was trying to hold it all together and be my own version of my, all in all, I was completely missing out because He was waiting in heaven for me to give it All- to HIM- my compassionate, patient, kind and gentle heavenly Father.

What I’ve come to realize and am still embracing is that He’s not in heaven with a stick or a lightning bolt ready to strike me down for not being good enough; that’s why He sent His Son. He knew I could never be. He also knew that I would try, and seek to find my purpose, my value, my hope, my fullness in almost everything but Him. But in those moments, His love just kept chasing me, He wouldn’t give up on me and He hasn’t given up on you. He wants us to know that All things were created through Him and for Him in love and that He came before us, our issues, our brokenness, our pain, our sin, and that in spite of it all that He is able to make us whole, new, better than ever and has been holding us together, as well as our world, our universe, all we’ve come to know–all along.

In life, we’re often told it’s all about finding all we need for ourselves in things, people, our job, or our dreams. But those things will fail us, they’ll disappoint us, and leave us unsatisfied. But that’s not true with Jesus. Becuase in Christ, He is literally, all in all, thus, all we need.

We can find all in all, and it’s not in people or things or in doing or being, but in the person of Jesus Christ.

He’s the Originator of you, of me, of this world. He came before, and He holds everything together. He is all in all. Will you let Him be that for you? Will you let Him hold you together? I’m learning how, and I will never go back. Life without Jesus is not life at all. But life with Jesus is all I need and more than I could ever imagine.

You are loved, you are valuable, you are chosen, you are accepted, you are priceless and you can be and find all in all in Jesus!!

Because of Christ and His love,