The gospel changes everything.
Whether you have followed Jesus for a few days or followed him for thirty years, you know that he is our hope and our salvation. But when you wake up and look in the mirror each day, how do you change into a person who lives and looks more like Jesus? How does your day-to-day spiritual growth happen?
This is where we’re headed with this six-week study. And let’s be clear. This isn’t a self-help study. There’s no checklist of things for you to strike off that will take you from point A to point B. The gospel is what changes you. The work of the Holy Spirt in your life changes you. So, what does it look like to let the gospel transform you every day? We’re going to discover that we don’t work for our salvation. We work out our salvation.
There is a big word we use for working out our salvation called sanctification. It just means the process of becoming more like Jesus every single day. We love him. We have a relationship with him. Now how do we live like him?
We want to change, but we cannot do it our own. Does that make you feel free or like a failure? For those of us who like control and being able to do everything on our own, the need for help feels uncomfortable. But an artist does not stare at his paint brushes and expect them to create by themselves. He picks them up. He combines them with paint. He cleans them. He creates. In the same way, the Holy Spirit works in us and through us. Another one of our studies, Enjoying Jesus, states: “Jesus doesn’t call us to simply put his teaching into practice by our own willpower. If we try to do that, we will fail. We will be utterly unprepared to turn the other cheek or to love our enemy if we haven’t spent time with Christ in the unseen, everyday things.”
We were made to reflect our savior, but we don’t do that on our own. We become more like Jesus when we surrender and let him work in us. You are his creation, and he has a great plan in mind for you. When you get to know him more, it becomes so much easier to see that his way for you is better than your own way. Take a deep breath knowing that.
There is hope. You can change because Jesus and the work of the Holy Spirit changes you. Praise be to God. Hope is alive.
I have felt stagnant/stuck. My hope is that I would build purposeful habits through this study of spending time with Jesus and that this would pull me out of my idolness.
To develop daily rhythms of surrender that make me more like Jesus. I want to purposefully make a daily choice to live for Jesus in the spaces He has called me to. To influence & change them for His Kingdom vs them influencing & changing me, by making my heart hard & my mind overwhelmed & frustrated. I want to daily make a choice to allow the Holy Spirit to lead & guide me, in actions, in words, & in my thoughts.
Yes…..daily rhythms!
So so good!!
Love the way you said, "daily rhythms of surrender" – YES.