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.
My hopes is to be changed from the inside out and be the image God wants me to be for His Glory IN JESUS NAME
Learn. Feel more secure, loved & be certain of at least one thing, I have an identity in Jesus.
To be more authentic with God and have a renewed passion for his Word
I would like to live free from a need for approval by others and to only seek God’s approval.
My hopes for this study is that I would hear God’s voice and know what path he chooses for me. I want to acquire an alertness so that I recognize when I am choosing my way rather than His. I want to be feel a sense of accomplishment by the end of this study.
How to be still and know that the Holy Spirit is with me & within me ! I’d love to know I’m open spiritually to hear & feel I’m following the path God wants for me .
I want to look forward to my time with Jesus. Also to stop worrying about what I cannot change.
I’d like to learn how to be more like Christ and how to put him first.
I hope to take a backseat in my life and learn to let God do the driving.
That the Holy Spirit would fill me, possess me and lead me! Peace of mind and joy no matter the day or situation.