Walking Out Truth

 

Walking Out Truth     

“For this reason also, since the day we heard this, we haven’t stopped praying for you. We are asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, so that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all the power, according to the glorious might, so that you may have endurance and patience, joyfully." Colossians 1: 9-11

Paul prayed that they would know God and what he required from them. Growing in a spiritual understanding would take time. The gospel on the ground came in a way that was changing everything that they had known. God's grace made available as they had heard about this hope of truth as Paul sat in prison would reach them reminding them what they had learned. It has always been about God reaching my heart so I could grasp his truth.

Even as I don’t lead a classroom any longer, the beginning of the year is one I won't forget. When I led I would set up the classroom preparing for new students to open the door to receive little ones not knowing me or their surroundings to encounter the beginning of it all. A new school year meant a new start. Some kids came in and didn't have a problem leaving mom or dad but some didn’t know what that meant to constantly remind them, “Mom and Dad will come back” but those words would take time to take root. Learning to trust that process of what we were telling them and seeing that at the end of class that truth would come sometimes would take time for them to believe. The growth of that understanding was different for each child. So why do I forget the process of becoming more like Jesus is remembering to preach to my heart to remember my dependence is on God alone? 

Growth takes time. Like those little ones when the door shuts and I feel alone I will forget. But learning that my Father is there even when it feels like He isn’t is growing in my dependence upon God alone. Learning that the Holy Spirit in me is that transforming agent of helping me to understand that what occurs in my mind can shift what occurs in my heart. I can intentionally speak God’s truth, grace and promises to my own heart when I encounter discouragement, doubt, or any of those sins I think I am hiding away. “Father, reveal to me what is standing in the way of me receiving your truth not to depend on you alone. Search me and know my heart. Forgive me when I forget so that I can move forward and remember I have been set free from the way I think.”

So what if when the door of doubt, discouragement, or anxiety I remembered I’m not alone? What would that walk look like daily?