I hope that yesterday’s question caused you to sit, reflect, and see how the Father moved in, with and through you. Sometimes reflecting back over a year can feel a little overwhelming. So much happened! The beauty of this process is that it calls to mind all of those moments, those relationships, those decisions. It calls to mind how God really did move in and around us, something we’ll often forget if we don’t slow ourselves down and carve out intentional time.
What are two significant choices you made, this year, to grow your relationship with the Lord?
You might have more, you might have only one. Perhaps you carved out time each morning to discipline yourself and study His Word. Maybe you started attending church regularly. What are two choices you made that grew your relationship with God? As you reflect on this, think about the beauty and grace that came from your intentionality, your obedience, your pressing in. Now, can you imagine how your life would have possibly remained the same without this shift? What will you do differently this year? Will you add a new spiritual discipline to your rhythms and routines?
This year, I decided that I would show up for biblical, missional community. It was a significant choice because, well, my inclination is that I’d rather just be at home with a book. Sometimes I didn’t do it well. Sometimes I didn’t want to do it at all. Sometimes I expected too much and gave too little. But, over and over, I would keep coming back to it.
As someone who enjoys being home (read: introvert), entering into community felt risky. It meant that not only would I have to show up, but I would have to show up with a transparent and vulnerable heart. It meant that things would soon be uncomfortable and it meant that people would really begin to see me, know me.
But oh, the growth and beauty that came from building and cultivating friendships, from showing up, and from showing up for people week by week, conversation by conversation. The Lord uses us in our communities. He uses us to teach others (like myself) to stretch and gain a fuller understanding of friendship. He uses us to encourage others to see how they are winning in life, to send them hope, even when they feel they’re in the pit. He uses our hearts and our words to prune one another, to speak life, to shape and transform. He uses us as givers, and He uses us as receivers.
I began to see Him more and more. I began to listen for and hear His voice more clearly. I began to go to Him more, to read about Him more, to pray to Him more. Surrounding myself with people who love Him most helped me to see how I was not loving Him with all of my heart. Community has this funny way of uncovering things that are deeply hidden.
When we intentionally show up and commit to one another, we reflect how God shows up for us. When we surround ourselves with people who are indwelled by the Spirit of God, there’s no way that our relationship with Him won’t grow. When we surround ourselves with people who are chasing after Him, placing Him first, we won’t be able to stay stagnant with Him. When we choose to be intertwined, to be present in the highs and the lows, to bring glimpses of hope, and when we have our eyes opened to the beauty of it all…Our hearts rejoice, we lift songs of praise, and we’ll keep coming back for more.
The graciousness of being in community with men and women whose hearts are after Kingdom-things allows us to walk more confidently in who, through the grace of Jesus and by the power of the Holy Spirit, God intended us to be. In community, we have an opportunity to model and teach one another how to trust, how to soften, and how to live safeguarded by the Cross. When we choose to be vulnerable with our brothers and sisters, allowing them to truly know our sin and struggles and giving them permission to speak God’s truth to us, we allow our community to partner with the Spirit in the transformative work of sanctification. The community stirs one another up so that everyone within it can be encouraged, exhorted, and reminded of our desperate need for grace in order to live intentionally in the identity that Jesus, by the Cross, has given us.
What are two significant choices you made, this year, to grow your relationship with the Lord?
Come back tomorrow for Question #3. Miss yesterday’s question? Click here to catch up.
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