Buried With Christ

When you get married, you are declaring your love for your spouse, but that love is always backed up by a commitment to continue loving them through every season of life. You know that when someone tells you that they love you, but doesn’t commit to living out that love, then the declaration of love was just a fleeting emotion. Our relationship with Jesus is the same. If we love Jesus, we will be committed to a life of loving him. If we love Jesus, we will be committed to the work of loving other people (and it will be work). If you’ve been married for any length of time, you know that loving people is hard work. If the people with whom you have an emotional connection can be difficult to love, imagine how hard it is to love your enemies. But if we love Jesus, we will love even our worst enemies.  Love is a commitment, not a feeling. We don’t love Jesus when it’s easy, convenient, or sensible. We love Jesus always — no matter what. It means we are committed to loving the people that he loves. We are committed to rooting out sin in our lives. We are committed to obeying his commandments. A life marked by the love of Jesus is one that will consistently be marked by an unwavering commitment to Jesus’s way.  Reflection/Discussion Question: What gets in the way of committing yourself to Jesus?

Jesus died on the cross while we were still sinners (Romans 5:8), so we can be sure that his gift of peace is just like his gift of eternal life: free. The trouble with gifts is that they need to be accepted in order to be used, enjoyed, or experienced. Jesus offers us his peace through the gift of the Holy Spirit, but if we don’t accept his gift, we will never experience his peace. This is why so many Christians aren’t living in peace, but are instead mirroring the dissension, anxiety, and chaos of the world. They may have come up out of the waters of baptism declaring themselves a new creation in Christ, but they haven’t turned their focus away from the world and onto Christ. While his peace isn’t dependent upon our working for it, our experience of his peace is dependent upon our turning toward it. How do we turn toward Christ’s gift of peace? Philippians 4:4-6 says, “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God” (NIV). Because of what Jesus has done, we can turn and rejoice in him always. We can give everything to God in prayer and petition and we can have a genuine heart of thankfulness. When we take this posture of submission to Jesus in the midst of our circumstances, we fully receive his peace that “transcends all understanding” (Philippians 4:7).  Reflection/Discussion Question: How can you rejoice in the Lord in the midst of your current circumstances?

I read 1 Corinthians 12 regarding the spiritual gifts we are given. I was left with questions: What gift do I have? Why am I wasting the gift that God has given me? God has given me so much potential, why am I afraid to be all that He says I am? I have been praying that God shows me the gifts He has given . I want God to utilize me to glorify His name through helping others with the gift He has given.

We are very intentional about living our life around God. This plays out in cranking up Jesus music and dancing in the kitchen while making supper, attending and volunteering at our church, having the Streetlight app read the Bible while we do our chores, praying with and over our kids at night and having those deep and honest conversations on what it means to follow Jesus. I start my day with a devotion, this is my private time to spend with Jesus and for internal reflection. This daily schedule that my daughter has pinned by her bed is a great reminder that things done in private are also seen