Walking in Christ

 

"Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are his dear children. Live a life full of love, following the example of Christ. He loved us and offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God.” 

Ephesians 5:1-2 NLT

When I read this verse, my first thought is how much I have failed at keeping this command. God has seen me yell at my kids for dropping and breaking a glass jar in the kitchen. The anger I had toward my husband for not cleaning the living room after the baby had taken powder and hid underneath one of the end tables to have a powder party with their sibling. Now you can see what my heart looked at this particular day. My emotions were not in check during those moments. Through my child's eyes, the Lord has taught me that I mess up too. I have created messes in my life that have affected those around me. I have been unloving and withholding mercy. All of which are not qualities of my Savior. The good news is that Christ gives us grace. Grace to see my sin. Grace to see others as more important than myself and to give mercy instead of anger to my loved ones. 

Christ is our example in that we bear His image. He loved us so much that He gave his life for us to have eternal life. Dying for you and me to pay the debt we could never pay. We are saved through the blood of Jesus Christ. As his beloved children, He calls us to behave like Him, to love Him, and to love others as He loves us. These are the marks of a faithful Christian. 

Am I behaving like Christ? This question still makes me take pause and reevaluate even now. Today many years removed from the example I just told you about my life is still full of children and learning to walk as a Christ follower. Learning to walk is a process as we know this from watching our children take their first steps. Walking doesn't happen fast and there is a lot of falling and getting back up again. This is exactly how the Lord teaches us. We learn to love and delight in Him as children and then start crawling into a desire for growth. This walk gets stronger and before we know it we are surrendering and seeking God in everything. Our lives should be a sacrifice in worship to the Lord. Sacrificing my comforts to please HIm. Sharing in His love by extending love and grace to my family and neighbors. Delighting in the things of God and not the world. 

Lord, I want to walk in your image. I want others to see You in me more than this corrupt world. I want to lay down my selfish desires and pick up yours. Lead me by the Spirit to hear your voice. Lead me to walk in obedience every day with you Lord. Praise and love to my Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Motherhood is Holy Work

 

These days look like little hands always reaching up to be held. They always seem to be reaching for whatever I am currently doing and I admit this can feel like interruptions to my day. Something that I just want to stop because I can get things done faster without the help of little hands. God reminded me this week that these little hands won’t stay little forever. These little hands won’t always be reaching upward for me. These little hands are a gift today. These babies are a gift from the Lord. They aren’t interrupting my day but blessing my life with a vision of God’s love for us. 

Jesus loves me so much He never stopped reaching for me. When I was running away He never left my side. When I turned my back He patiently waited for the day I turned around to run back into His arms. Like a child we may come and go from our Father but He never sees us as an interruption. The picture I see as my grandchildren run around my feet is joy and unconditional love as I gently care for them as my Heavenly Father cares for me. 

There is holy work in motherhood. 

It is sanctifying work raising our children. 

As I follow Christ I am laying the stepping stones to a firm foundation for their little hearts to see Jesus. As I keep reaching for my Father my prayer is that my grandchildren will all keep reaching up as well. 

Have you thought about God’s Love

“and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” ‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭3‬:‭19‬ ‭ESV‬‬ 

Have you ever deeply thought about the love of God?

 I guess love is probably on the top of my mind as my husband and I are fostering our two grand girls. They have lived with us for 8 months now. It has been life changing for us and knowing God loves us as his children has been a comfort these days. His gracious hand on our lives has taught us we are taken care of but can we ever know how deeply God loves us? 

 We will find it hard to grasp the love of God with our limited minds. Gods love is limitless, God’s love is “agape” love. It is not a reciprocal kind of love. It isn’t the love that is easy to give because it requires the Spirits work in us and even still I am not sure we can ever grasp it. In Ephesians, Paul says it surpasses knowledge. This love isn’t the same love we give to our spouse or kids. We can love so deeply but in our flesh we want some return for it. We want our spouse or the person whom we have loved on to reciprocate that love or give us something back. It’s our human nature and everyone likes to be appreciated, don’t we? God’s love isn’t that way. He loves without any strings attached. I mean we can love someone and do all the things that go along with loving that person and tell ourself we don’t expect to be lavished with love back or even appreciated. But is that really true? 

 In our most basic nature I believe we find it hard but that’s where surrendering our life to Christ comes in. We can only love with this agape kind of love by prayer and letting the Spirit’s power do His work in us. Only then we will find our way to love like Christ knowing it is for His glory not our own. It will be with intentional action and no expectations. It isn’t easy and I would even say it is a selfless kind of love that only points to Jesus. There will be blessings and joy as we walk worthy of this calling by faith and obedience to the Lord. 

My encouragement is to keep praying and trusting God’s love will carry us as we learn to love like Christ. 

Days of Doubt

 

Some days I have doubts. 

I doubt God can see my dreams and desires to fruition. 

I am not sure I should doubt. I don’t want to be double minded like James tells us not to be. 

I see there is so much goodness and beauty yet life can be hard, sad, and hurt sometimes. The world wants us to question God. 

Then I doubt but really it’s me I doubt the ability of not God. I know He can do immeasurable things. I have seen others have their dreams fulfilled and God has answered my prayers so many times. Yet there are days I hesitate to believe it for myself. I let doubt hold me back.  Though it isn’t me in whom I should trust for anything. 

It is God. To fear God. 

sigh.

What is wrong with me? Should we ever doubt? I am not sure. There are days I believe God then the world screams in my ear, “it’s not for you. It will be too hard. It will cost too much.” 

What is the cost? My soul, my time, my money? 

I let fear paralyze me. I do nothing. I let my big emotions take me captive. 

It is in these times I go to The Word for answers. 

 Believing God is surrendering my doubts, the fear and the what if’s over into his arms. Freeing me of myself. All my resources are His. One big resource is prayer! 

My doubt brings me to prayer. Where I want to talk to God through my doubts, bringing me and my daily life to faithful surrender. He is faithful and never changes. So if He can do immeasurably more than I think I want to exchange my doubts with belief in Him for everything! 

Will I be faithful? 

Will I keep being obedient to keep doing what He calls me to do even in the beautiful days and in the hard days ahead? 

Will I believe my dreams are valid and He will work them out one day through my faithful obedience. 

I don’t want to doubt God can do anything even beyond what I can imagine for my life. 

What about you? 

#knitthegospelintoyourheart