For some reason, "I'll stop the world and melt with you..." keeps running through my head. For the past two days, my world has come to a slight halt, thanks to a weather-changing induced sickness, and it's given me the time to consider how very, very fast this city is training my body and mind to move. Making time to rest and slow down happens every once in a while, during that random, but generous, three-hour time slot on a Tuesday afternoon...
I've had some time to ponder what it means to be truly free. Physically speaking, in worldly terms, freedom's connotation means health, wealth, happiness, and peace. But what does it mean to say that Christ has come to set the captives free? What does it truly look like for me to live in Christ, to walk with Him? One thing is for sure: I do not have all the answers. And so I pray.
A thought that has been abounding in depth for the past year or so is: Fullness in Christ is to be all that God intended for me to be. I think about fullness in John 10:10 ("I have come so they may have life, and have it to the full."), and I cannot help but think about the times when I get ill, about how I, as Paul talks about in Romans, "do what I don't want to do", about how worldly circumstances seem "too much" at times to possibly urge on a full life.
If fullness of life is spiritual, then what are the things Christ is forming within me to make me closer to His likeness? And, then, how is this fullness expressed, lived out, in our world? I praise God that He created so many individual children, all liking different hobbies, working in various industries, and expressing their own likes and dislikes. I wonder if this fullness is working within me to make me more like Christ, yet it looks completely different from the way God is working in the woman next to me? Especially in the way fullness of life and walking with God is expressed?
I have been babysitting here in the city as one of my jobs, and one night, as I was rocking a precious little seven-month-old to sleep, the parallel of Christ and myself became stunningly clear. The way this little innocent girl looked up at me was so needy, so open, so fragile, and so trusting; I then realized that just a dependent gaze unto the Lord, a look of love, a trusting mind bring intimate fellowship with the God of the universe. How often I struggle with praying "words", correct words, in an effort that God will sense my need and respond with His voice; really, resting in His presence and acknowledging His goodness is worship.
1 Peter 2:5
you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
Amazing that we are God's temple! Jesus is the cornerstone (Matt. 21:42); we are His living stones.
I am still mulling through these thoughts on a daily basis. Lord, Teach us Your intentions for us, so that we may become more like you, and experience the fullness of life that Christ promised.
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