You Don't Know The Cost

I was sitting listening to various songs and I ran across a very powerful song by Cece Winans...Alabaster Box. Now I've heard this song over and over, and have always loved it, but today it just struck me in a different way. Just read some of the lyrics and really see if you can personify them with yourself:

I can't forget
The way life used to be
I was a prisoner
To the sins that had me bound
I spent my days
Poured my life without measure
Into a little treasure box
I thought I had found
Until the day when Jesus came to me
And healed my soul
With the wonders of His love
So now I'm giving back to Him
All the praise He's worthy of
I've been forgiven
And that's why
I love Him so much

Those lyrics really exemplify to me personally of where God has brought me from because those lyrics were "me" in so many ways. If I tried to describe "me" in any other way in hopes to sincerely describe where Jesus has brought me from, I couldn't measure up to how the lyrics have broken "me" down. I was a prisoner to the sins that had me bound, I spent my days pouring my life without measure into a little treasure box I "thought" I had found: UNTIL....hmph!!!!

And I'm sure many people can relate and testify, however I can only really comment on myself. So I say so strongly to everyone, don't be ashamed of where God has brought you from, don't be afraid to give thanks and praise the way you really feel you are being moved to praise. I'm a water-head, and trust me, I will cry at the drop of a hat, I can't tell yall how many times I've had to get myself together in the parking lot of my job because my praise has taken me to a level that I wasn't expecting during a morning commute.

Don't be bashful about expressing to the world how merciful God has been to you and how much you love the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. God is so good, and the even better part is He is not halfway finished with blessing us. I hate to sound cliche', though this statement is so very true when it comes to what God has for us, but THE BEST IS YET TO COME!!! Yall aint feeling me! Sometimes I feel as though if I praised Him a million times a minute, I still couldn't praise Him enough. Don't let people water down your praise, and if they try to, you have lyrics to assist you on how to handle those people.

Simply tell them, "Don't be angry if I wash His feet with my tears, And dry them with my hair, You weren't there the night He found me, You did not feel what I felt
When He wrapped His loving arms around me, And you don't know the cost of the oil in my alabaster box."

That is the best way to handle that, because truly when it comes to me, you and them...none of us know what people are going through, what people have overcome and been delivered from, we are literally at war fighting for our physical and spiritual lives so no one honestly can judge anyone else's situation and circumstance. I will be quick to admit to everyone that they don't know what I've gone through... I'll tell anyone, you weren't there the night Jesus found Crystal, you did not feel what I felt when Jesus wrapped His loving arms around me...you don't know the cost of the oil, you don't know the cost of my praise, you don't know the cost of the oil...in MY alabaster box.

And you should be confident and so grateful for the love that Christ has so unselfishly poured on, in, and around you to do the same.