Growth

Over the past few months I have seen so much growth in my beloved husband.  He is beginning to understand how loved he is by the Father and that he is in fact a child of a great King.  It is wonderful seeing him embrace this understanding of who he is in Christ.  Understanding this about himself is transforming him right before my eyes and it is a wonderful sight to behold!

I think back on my own journey with the LORD and I realize how far I really have come as well.  The valleys that I have walked in and the fact that grace has always been the rock of my salvation, my foundation.  For this I am so grateful as I have fallen and failed more times that I even would like to remember.  I am so glad that the Father says that he takes our sins and throws them as far as the East is from the West.  That is pretty far.  We do have the freedom to walk free from sin, but that does not mean that our flesh will like it.  That is why Jesus said, pick up your cross daily, and follow me.  Daily, that is a word that I have been pondering this past couple of weeks.  Daily.

Have we in the American church, thought that we should pick up our cross, only for two hours a week while we are attending our weekly church service?  Is going to church in fact just a "good habit".  Don't get me wrong, I enjoy going to church, always have, even from a very young age.  I like everything about it.  I like the music, I like the preaching and I like the fellowship.  I have probably gone to church more in my life than most people over the course of my life.  So i am not in anyway saying we should not go.  What I am saying is have we turned what should be a relationship with our LORD into a weekly ritual that we perform.  Take the family to church, check, but this weeks groceries, check.  Of course these are all great generalizations, I am aware, but I think it could be another trap for our heart.  A trap because what started out as a love affair has ended in a duty to be performed (sometimes human marriage is like that too).

I need to really consider this relationship that I have been blessed with, because of the blessed redemptive work of the cross and the blood that Jesus spilled...and the most important part, that HE ROSE AGAIN!  Am I taking up my cross daily?  Am I saying no to my flesh and yes to the SPIRIT of God?

LORD help me to hear and to understand what the Spirit is saying and help me to obey.