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.
To be more patient and to actually to live for God and to grow in him each day!
That I grow in my spirit that lean more about the bible so I can share with others .
To learn to live everyday with Jesua by my side. I want to walk in his ways. I want to be anointed for ministry. I want to minister to broken people. But I need to be prepared for the battle first. I’m armed but I’m not trained.
To help strengthen my relationship with God. For maturity in him and growth. My faith to be stronger and for me to be more bold and understand Jesus more.
To become more like Jesus
So changed so people would want to know the hope that is in me
Deny mySELF and it’s power to control my thoughts and desires (FLESH- Rom. 8:5).
Ask and allow the Holy Spirit to control me daily!
At the end, I will be more surrendered to the work of God and not my control to do the work He has already done!
Let it be JESUS! Amen!
I am exhausted under the weight of myself. I am utterly disabled by the weight of this world. I am overwhelmed and angry and bitter and have never felt more "homesick" than at this particular time in my life. I’m tired. And, I’m scared…I’m scared of losing people, I’m scared for my son, I’m scared of being needed when I don’t have anything left to give, I’m scared of being sick and tired all the time, I’m scared I’ll never feel joy again, and I’m scared of being scared. I feel destroyed…and maybe that’s a good thing. Maybe that’s a God thing. My hopes for this study is to begin the process of sanctification…I feel like I had it before, but the new adult me…she needs to be transformed.
You said what is exactly on my heart Aleisha! Thank you!
I have been a Christian for many years. My Hope for this study is that I can regain the fire at once rained inside of you for my Lord and Savior.
My hope is to be rooted even deeper in Christ. I want to have the roots so when the storms come my tree isn’t one to fall. I can swag in the wind but always remember the truths about Hod are never changing. I want to let the Holy Spirit equip me with tools to take into battle in a world that worships self.
I am hoping for working out my sanctification. I hope for change in my life. What I would like to be different by the end is walking with God more consistently and having an intimate relationship with Him. I hope to become a vessel. I hope to be able to hear and share His Word.