a child of god
this is the way, run in it
Do you want to live? Really live? The only way we live spiritually is in God through faith in Jesus, the Son of God. When we do that - come to God through faith - He makes us alive spiritually and as we live each day in Him, walk with Him, listen to Him through His Word and His Spirit, God Himself begins to do things for us and in us that we can't do ourselves. Life with God is so worth it!
I'm reading in Ephesians 4 this week and I had one of those God light bulb moments when His Spirit shines out of the scripture and shows me something. Reading from verse 17 onwards, there is a real contrast between people who don't know God and people who do know God. Those who don't know God live their lives trapped in the futility (useless, can't accomplish anything) of their own minds, because their minds aren't able to comprehend God's light and truth as their own are darkened (by sin and the enemy), and because of that they are excluded from life in God. Not only that but their hearts have hardened because of how they live their life, in sin, separated from God. Trapped! with dark minds and hearts, excluded from God and His light and truth, with hard hearts - how sad. The contrast is with the people of God. These people who believe in Jesus as the Messiah, as Christ, have soft hearts towards God and towards other people. Their understanding is not darkened, but instead God has shone the light of His wisdom and knowledge and Spirit into their hearts and minds, spirits and bodies. They walk in God's ways, out of love and obedience, and they grow in their understanding of who God is and who they are to God. They are not excluded from the life of God because their sin is forgiven by Jesus; instead, they are immersed into the life and light of God. They/we do this by forsaking the old sinful way of life, putting off that old self that gave in to sin and said and did things that weren't good. And we put on our new self, daily, that Jesus has made possible for us to have - this new self has been made in the likeness of God Himself - created in righteousness, and holiness of the truth. And we get to put that on! We are renewed in the spirit of our minds every day in God's word and by His Spirit. Verse 31-32 says this, "Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice (that's all sinful old self stuff that leads to death and a darkened mind and hard heart). And be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgive you (this is our new self, our spiritual life in God - full of Him, full of light and righteousness and holiness and grace)." God Himself makes it possible for us to come to Him and be changed. Ephesians chapter 2, verses 1 - 10, talks about this. Even when we were dead (and darkened, hardened) in our trespasses and sins, even then, God (v.4) in His rich mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, made us alive with Christ (by grace we have been saved). For by grace we have been saved through faith, and that not of ourselves, it is a gift of God, not as a result of works (not anything we could have done for ourselves) that no one should boast (v.8-9). When we walk with God (and we need to do this daily), He washes our minds and hearts clean with His word, and He shines the light of His Spirit in our hearts - we are immersed in Him, in His light - and that illumines the way for others to come to Jesus. That's how we shine for Jesus. That's how we know God more and more, and become the person/people He created and died to redeem. That is what life is about. How could we not want that?
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Franci Ballwatching and working for the kingdom of God in Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham - UK Archives
January 2019
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