“I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called.” — Ephesians 4:1
The time for complacency is past. My heart has ached this week as I have encountered people and situations that amplify the need for the presence and touch of Jesus. In my time with the Lord, He has convicted me of the current state of my sanctification. To be clear, being sanctified is not something I can do for myself. No, the sanctification of the believer is dependent on the work of the Holy Spirit in each of our lives. However, every believer is responsible for his or her cooperation with the Spirit in the process of sanctification.
Each morning I rise early to make coffee and meet with Jesus in His Word. I am desperate for times of connecting with the Lord. Some mornings, there is rich fellowship and deep teachings from the Word while other times it feels like maybe I missed hearing from Him in some way. After walking with Jesus for many years, I expect this ebb and flow. I also am cognizant to seek wisdom and discernment if there is an underlying sin or stubbornness or doubt that is creating a barrier for me to hear the Lord. I have also grown to expect opposition from the enemy surrounding times of spiritual growth or shifting seasons my in life. Further, I have been known to be caught off guard by unforeseen spiritual warfare. Each of these scenarios has the potential to present challenges to my daily encounters with Jesus.
I have caught myself asking Him frequently, “What am I missing? Why do you feel far away?” I feel like I have been stuck in the same place or some type of rut and cannot quite navigate my way out or understand the purpose of it. Sometimes I feel like all I ask God is what His will is for me and if I should continue on the path I am. There has been a restlessness in my spirit that wonders what is next and if my current door is closing or is the path just shifting. Do I keep writing? Is this His will for me or am I merely persisting down a dead-end road? As a student of God’s Word and a teacher, He has taught me that when He seems silent and far away, I must lean in and listen more closely. In the silence, He has much to teach me.
I wish that God would wave a sign that says, “Take this path.” Faith and trust aren’t exactly best cultivated in that environment though. In these times of seeming silence, my muscle memory becomes important. Remembering God’s faithfulness in the past is paramount. Recalling where God last led me keeps me grounded and rooted on the path until He reveals the next step. God’s will is always to love Him with everything in me and to love others. Remain in His Word and abide in Him. Pray without ceasing. In everything, give thanks. Count it all joy. Flee from idols. In the silence, God is preparing me for what comes next. The soil is being primed for greater growth, and the pruning is cutting away some things that need to go before God can do what He is planning in my life. I sense a need to prepare for battle. The Lord is working, and the enemy is going to try his hardest to knock me out of the fight.
I took a couple of days and read through the book of Ephesians a few times. I read it through in one sitting and also had it read to me through a Bible app on the way to work. Those same days, I also was reading in the book of Matthew where Jesus is telling His disciples to deny themselves, take up their crosses, and follow Him. Jesus was telling them that to find true life they must lose their right to self (Matthew 16:24-26). In Matthew 18, I read with fresh eyes how Jesus told His disciples to go to great extremes to flee temptation or rid themselves of it (v. 7-9). I felt God stirring within me a deep desire to step up my sanctification. So many of my conversations with Him reflected my longing to make Him the center of my day but not quite knowing how to apply the truths of my quiet time to the rapid pace of a job that demands my full mental engagement throughout the day. This cycle often leaves me feeling like a failure as His daughter when I lay my head on my pillow each night.
By God’s design did I find myself reading both in Ephesians and Matthew on the same mornings. I felt truth explode inside my chest. To follow Him would require great commitment and a renouncing of complacency in the day-to-day. You see, my approach to walking worthy of Jesus was entirely self-reliant, as though my worthiness is my own doing. Jesus reminded me that I am worthy because His blood made me worthy. The lifestyle to follow Him is a by-product and result of recognizing His abundant grace and lavish love for me. He has equipped me with everything I need to walk worthy of Him, to follow hard after Him, to step up my sanctification. God does NOT mess around with sin. He does not tolerate secret indulgences. His light, His perfection, His holiness, His very nature cannot abide sin in any form. As His children, we are indwelled by His Holy Spirit to guide us in truth, to lead us, and to convict us of sin.
To experience Jesus is to allow Him to radically change our lives and transform us ever more into His image. To take a stand against sin. To confess it daily. To speak up for the truth when it is unpopular. To love the unlovely. To wash the feet of the one who may betray us. To be silent in the face of insults and accusations. To keep our eyes fixed on Jesus and study how He lived. To follow the example of Jesus when He was on earth. To study the upside-down nature of the blessed life. The time has come for us to no longer blend in. Now is the time for boldness and courage of faith. In a world that is so dark, may we reflect the light of Jesus so that others are drawn to Him. As we become more and more sanctified, others will notice the difference in us and we have the priceless opportunity to point people to Jesus.
These concepts cut straight to the core when I read Ephesians 4:20-5:21. Verses 22-24 of chapter 4 state this: “To put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” The verses that follow delve more into what that looks like in everyday living. In the weeks to come, I intend to spend more time in a deep dive of those verses in my time with the Lord. I know these verses are imperative to His sanctification process of me and His plans for what is next for me. I am excited and committed to doing the work of shedding sins and what does not belong and surrendering to the work of the Holy Spirit within me to renewed in the spirit of my mind. What He does within me will flow from me. As followers of Jesus, this is what we have been called to do and to be. Where have you felt Jesus nudging in your life? Today is the day to respond and take the first step of radically following Him. I promise it will be worth it!
The Satisfied Soul 
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