Enter in

Sometimes we need a reset in life – a new year is usually considered a good time to begin again what we may not have done well in the previous year. If you are anything like me, you might be having a harder time ‘beginning anew’ that diet plan. All the other stuff that I have committed to this year is going well, but that ‘healthy eating’ lifestyle change is harder after you have become accustomed to eating all those sweets over the holidays, isn’t it? Those ‘carbs’ just have a way of latching onto us and holding us captive to their allure! Sin is kind of like that in our lives, too. It has a way of appealing to some urge we might not have enough ‘inner power’ to overcome on our own. If that pull is what is keeping you from moving forward this year, perhaps it is time to revisit the issue with God.

Watch what God does, and then you do it; like children who learn proper behavior from their parents. Mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn’t love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like this. (Ephesians 5:1-2)

God loves us so much that he wants to help us be like his son, Jesus. He urges us toward ‘proper behavior’, but he doesn’t just expect us to get there on our own. He gave us an example to follow, providing a means for us to ‘enter into’ his best for us. He also tells us to keep company with him – and like it or not, with each other. Perhaps one of the hardest things we can do is admit to another what we are struggling with right now. Yet, it could be that God prepared that individual to actually bring us a word to help us resist the urge to give into whatever it is we are struggling with right now. It could also be that he wants us to learn ‘strength’ by admitting our ‘weakness’.

That may seem a little scary to some of us because we have been very ‘private’ about our struggles. We don’t want to ‘air our dirty laundry’ to others, but God isn’t impressed with that type of ‘strength’. In fact, he calls us to give up our ‘caution’ when it comes to admitting our need. We admit it to him first, then we shouldn’t be surprised when he urges us to admit it to another who is also following Christ. It isn’t because he doesn’t love us – it is because of his intense love for us that he gives us one another to walk out this thing we call ‘right-living’. Just sayin!