Thank You, Lord, for this free gift, listen:
“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Ro 6:23 ESV
So to experience and have a deepening sense of this New Life we have to grow in Christ. And how do we grow in Christ? We abide in Him. Abide? What does that mean? It means we remain focused on Him. We think about what we are thinking about and make sure it lines up with the way Jesus thought. We pay attention to where are emotions are trying to drive us, up towards holiness or down towards those death symptoms. We align our will with that of God’s by asking ourselves things like, does what I want honor God or not? Is my motivation for doing this love or selfish? How can I say this in a way that will lift this other person up instead of bring them down? The more we control our soul before it controls us, the more we will be abiding in Christ.
When Jesus walked this earth, He always and only did whatever God, the Father commanded Him to do. We see in the Garden of Gethsemane especially that this did not always mean that Jesus the Human wanted to go through what God the Father was commanding. But in the end, Jesus surrender and submitting to the Father’s Will. And thank God He did or none of us would be going to Heaven! Because Jesus already lived the perfectly obedient life, if we abide in Him, we too can learn to come closer and closer to that type of Abundant Life. We must abide in Him, remain connected and focused on Him. Some poke fun at it, but WWJD (What Would Jesus Do) is a great way to live this New Life. And we can learn to discern the answer to that question the more we open up this free gift.
Join me in memorizing 52 verses this year:
January: 1- Jn 3:16; 2- 2Co 5:17; 3- Jas 2:26; 4- Eph 2:10
5- Jn 10:10
6- Ro 6:23
<>< Peace, Diane
