“So come on, let’s leave the preschool finger-painting exercises on Christ and get on with the grand work of art. Grow up in Christ. The basic foundational truths are in place: turning your back on “salvation by self-help” and turning in trust toward God; baptismal instructions; laying on of hands; resurrection of the dead; eternal judgment. God helping us, we’ll stay true to all that. But there’s so much more. Let’s get on with it!”
Hebrews 6:1-3 MSG
I love, love, love this translation for today’s scripture. Specifically the words, “self-help" because It highlights for me “works” in a different way than how I have thought about it before. I cannot earn my way into salvation and I have spent a lot of my life surely doing all the self-help stuff even when it comes to religious activities like spiritual disciplines. Maybe it's more like self-reliance which Is not my goal. My goal Is God-Reliance. It’s amazing how I have grown more spiritually since I’ve been reading a chapter of the Bible a day, then all 37 years before that.
My flesh is very perfectionistic and checking things off the list has always been something that made me feel good. I also recognize how I have done a lot of my Christian walk out of my own strength even though I wasn’t doing it thinking I could earn my salvation. I am now realizing It's certainly how It has looked, if that makes sense.
It’s interesting how this life of fostering and adopting has brought me to a place where I am at the end of myself on every level. Parenting In general does that. If Im being honest so does divorce, running a business, and practically everything I do. Recognizing how self-reliant I have been and learning how to give up control (it's a process Im not there yet...) is actually one of the most freeing things I could ever do.
I really recognized that my new approach to various spiritual disciplines in my life is now more of an outpouring and an overflow from relationship versus a checklist. I like approaching things of faith this way better and it's less overwhelming. I look forward to it and look for ways I can do more. It's such a shift In perspective.
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