«God has united you with Christ Jesus. For our benefit God made him to be wisdom itself. Christ made us right with God; he made us pure and holy, and he freed us from sin» (1 Corinthians 1:30).
It may not be a value in itself, at least according to society. But it’s essential to Christian life.
This year, we have lived another 357 days. Perhaps physically many of us are not in a growth stage, but as God’s children we are constantly growing in our spiritual life, or at least we should be.
We very rarely stop to think that, if a child stopped growing as expected, professionals would immediately be consulted and something would be done about it, while many of us spend a whole life «stuck» in our spiritual growth, without generating great alarm or worry. Jesus made Himself wisdom, justification, sanctification and redemption for us, so we would be able to reach each of those expected and necessary steps.
But how can we do that? It is very simple, and at the same time goes against our human nature. We have to renounce to ourselves, ask the Holy Spirit to live in us each day and, that way, through His work, keep on growing according to plan.
We are justified by faith, but as a natural response to His love, we empty ourselves out so there will be room for Him. There is actually no work for us to do. The work is performed by the Holy Spirit. But He cannot do it if we do not ask Him to and give Him permission to do it.
In both the Old and New Testaments we see the role played by humans in the miracles experienced by divine command. The role was to submit, obey and then receive. God doesn’t need us in order to perform miracles, but we do need Him. It is something that should be renewed every day, something we should constantly ask for, without growing tired or trusting ourselves.
Many times we stop at the justification phase, discussing about faith and works, and don’t give way to the entire process God wants to work in us. It would be like being at an airport, going up the staircases leading to the airplane and standing there talking without boarding the plane.
No matter what has happened these 357 days, whether there was a lot of growth or not, the good news is there is still time to ask for that process to move forward this very day. None of me, all of Him.
