The Journey in Christ
As we deepen our lives in Christ, living more and more into the kingdom of God, we are leaving behind the obsessions of this world with money and power and prestige in favor of love, forgiveness and mercy. We are leaving behind our ego-obsession with how we look to our neighbors and friends in favor of how we look to God. We are leaving behind the ways of the world and living into our most natural talents and the purpose for which we were created.
This journey in Christ takes a long unfolding of the issues that come between us and God and our turning them over to the Holy Spirit to heal and transform into love. Months, years, the rest of our lives are spent in surrendering all that we are to Him, so that we can become true servants of God, who, with every act and word will be carrying His message of love and forgiveness and mercy to everyone we meet.
Our belief in God, surrendering our lives to Christ are the first steps on this journey, but we have to go way beyond belief to actually living the love for God, our neighbor and ourselves, the absolute trust in His love and providence at every level of our being. For it is not just our outer behavior and the attitudes that we demonstrate to another that counts in loving God; our subconscious and unconscious attitudes must also reflect that love and our trust in Him. This is a tall order for us humans, for we are not on this journey to look like the Pharisees who are showing publicly what they want others to think of them, but underneath they were not pious and faithful.
Our journey in Christ is to bring all of ourselves to God in devotion and in truth—our behavior and what we say, our lack of love for ourselves and others, our inner attitudes and judgments. As we lay all of these attitudes and lack of love and devotion on His altar, surrendering our failings to Him, The Holy Spirit will heal us and then transform us into the people that we were created to be.
So, surrender all that you are to Him. Pray for His healing and transforming for your very human sinfulness. And then, see for yourselves what God can do within you to bring you to love, to forgiveness, and to mercy. Forever and ever. Amen!