Galatians 3:1-14 makes one thing crystal clear: We are reconciled to God and receive His Holy Spirit by faith, not by obeying rules. Jesus accomplished what was need for our relationship with God to be restored (reconciled) when He died on the cross. The evidence of this restoration is the Resurrection and the Ascension and the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.
I know this is not anything new, but this morning it hit me in a fresh way. I truly got it.
I finally realized that I was still trying to impress God with my accomplishments and deeds and successes. I finally realized that my success did not run my relationship with God. This was a mindset shift (a paradigm shift, if you will) for me. I didn't even realize I had fallen into this mindset of hoping for God's acceptance, but I had.
As I reflected further, I realized that the life transformation Christ called the Church to proclaim and accomplish in the lives of His Bride was this shift to a relationship of receiving God's grace and love in everything rather than trying to earn it.
The best title I could come up with this way of life was: The Sacramental Life. A sacrament is a means (i.e. medium, way, avenue) of grace. I am truly living in the Kingdom of God when the entirety of my life is a means of grace. When I can receive God's grace and love through every thing I do, I am truly living the life Christ died to give me. Sanctification is positioning myself to see God's grace and love in everything. The disciplines are simply a tactic for opening myself up to God and His grace and love. Serving others becomes a way of receiving grace and love. Worship is now a means of receiving grace and love. I'm no longer doing things to make myself a better person, I'm doing things so that I might better see God at work in me.
Today, I will begin seeing every situation, every person, every moment as an act of faith - receiving God's grace and love in each. I will live the Sacramental Life.
Under the Mercy,
Jason
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