God's Grace is Enough!

I wanted to follow up on yesterday's post by saying this: when we believe in Jesus Christ, when we say that we have given all of our lives to Christ, then our journey with Christ begins.  Giving all of ourselves is a process (theologically called "sanctification") that God will never stop in us as long as we remain open to God's work.  The journey is not our alone - actually the journey to Christ isn't done by self will, self determination, self-effort, or hard work.  Granted, lots of hard work is involved in the journey...as well as  lots of perseverance and lots of determination.  But the journey itself is done by God - that journey is God transforming our hearts, our minds, our will, our thoughts, our lives into Christ-likeness.

Mark 4:26-29 contains a magnificent parable about the Kingdom of God which grows like a field of grain without the farmer understanding how it grows (think 2000 years ago, not about the scientist next door who meddles with the genetics of the grain to make it stronger!).  This is like the journey of a Christian - as long as we keep receiving the Word of Life, as long as we keep repenting from sin, as long as we keep turning towards Christ - Jesus will do the rest, growing us into full crops with the fruits and works of the Spirit by the power of the Holy Spirit working inside of us. 

In our walks with God, we are always companions with God - working alongside and trying to be more like Christ.  However, the measure of our work isn't in how much we give to others, how good we try to be, or how much faith we have.  The real work of a Christian is to surrender the self to God (continually) and to love God with all our hearts, minds, and souls.  This work, which can take many forms but always includes spiritual disciplines, is the crucial work of a Christian because it positions us before God who then does the real work in our lives and in our journeys with Jesus - transforming us into sons and daughters of God.

"Lord, may I surrender all to you, that you may do the true work on this journey - transforming me into your child."