Weekly Prayer: Spiritual Overhaul

Opening Prayer:

Gracious Lord Jesus, save us from tepid religion, from lukewarm faith that is more like a hobby than an outright commitment to you.  Fan the coals of our love for you into flame, so the world may feel the searing heat of your healing grace!

Ephesians 4: 17-32

When we start following Jesus, we start a new way of living.  Having faith in Jesus isn't just about getting our past sins forgiven so we can feel better about ourselves.  It isn't just about getting a "free pass to heaven" after we die, and it isn't a license for us to do whatever we want since we know that we'll be forgiven.  It is about a death and a resurrection...ours! 

This passage fills out our understanding of Christian baptism.  When we are baptized with faith in Jesus Christ, we are buried in the water.  Our old sin-sickened selves are left to rot under the water.  When we rise out of the water and take our first breath, we are born again by the resurrection power of Jesus, with new minds, hearts, and lives!  Our old self dies, and our new self in Jesus lives!

Thanks to Paul, we see more clearly that our resurrected selves should be different in tangible ways, especially in our relationships.  We should speak truth and not lie.  We can be angry, but we need to refrain from sinning in our anger and from holding onto our anger.  We need to do good work and not steal.  Our speech should build people up, not tear them down.  And we should be forgiving.

I don't know about you, but I find myself needing to pick up my cross and die to some part my old sinful self daily so that I can live more fully in the new life Jesus died and rose to give me.  Though we receive a new nature predisposed to honoring God when we have faith in Jesus, we still must work on the left-over sin-stained spots in our lives.  John Wesley said that we are "going on to perfection."  He meant that we are ever growing to be more fully loving like Jesus Christ whose love is perfect. 

Life Questions:

1.  What in you needs to die today so you can love more like Jesus?
2.  What in you needs to live today so you can love more like Jesus?

Closing Prayer:

Give us courage, dear Lord, to see ourselves clearly, stains and all.  Forgive us when we are unloving and unkind.  Free us to love more courageously, more gracefully, forgiving others, being kind but not fake, and using our words to encourage others. 

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