All these years I've been looking to Jesus as my example. I've tried to be like him, I've prayed to be like him, I've practiced being like him and every day I've failed to be like him. I can get close, some days I think I do a pretty good job. But most days I just don't measure up. I'm never patient enough or kind enough or good enough or loving enough.
I'm in a bible study with a group of ladies. We are studing a book called Empowering the Ordinary. I am amazed to learn that all the miracles Jesus performed, all the love that he showered on people, all the wisdom he bestowed on ordinary men, all the suffering he endured on the cross is not the example that we should follow. The example is that he totally & completely relied on the Holy Spirit & His Father for guidence. He could only do what His Father does. (Jn 5:19). His joy came through the Holy Spirit (Luke 10:21). He was full of the Holy Spirit (Luke 4:1) His Father was the one that glorified him. (Jn 8:54) He learned everything from His father (Jn 15:15)
So like Him, we are to be filled with the Holy Spirit (Ep 5:18). Our joy comes from the Spirit (1 Thes. 1:6), our peace comes from the Spirit (John 14:26). Our comfort comes from the Spirit(Acts 9:13). Our Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, self control, gentleness, faithfulness, they all come from the Spirit. I've always known that. But somewhere along the way I just got it all wrong and have tried too hard and too long to be a perfect version of myself, meeting all the requirements, crossing all the T's and dotting all the I's of righteous Christianity. Never realizing that Jesus came to earth to be just like me so that I could see the work of the Holy Spirit in an ordinary man. So our example isn't to be like a perfect man but to be like an ordinary man empowered by the perfect Holy Spirit.
God expects me to be full of Him just as Jesus was. How freeing is that. I don't have to be perfect, or loving or joyful. I just have to be full of the Spirit and all these things will be mine.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Isn't this a marvelous truth?! I haven't read the book, but this is a principle that we've been teaching in our church the last 2 years.
Everything He did was only as His own Father directed Him. We are to lean on our Heavenly Father in every part of our lives - in all ways! Not I, but Christ who lives in me!
Thanks for such a beautiful testimony.
Post a Comment