Lately in my walk with Christ, I have become complacent. I have become complacent to diving in and growing deeper in his word and living out his commands. I have began to consistently pray for God to ignite in me a deeper love for his word and to live my life more accustom to it. Since this realization, I was challenged while attending beach week to begin memorizing scripture, to better know the word by physically having it in me. This is something I have attempted before with little success but, by God's grace and the accountability I have surrounding me, I have begun again and grown immensely through the process.
Others and myself have embarked to memorize the book of
Ephesians, something that has taught me a great deal throughout the past year
and has been very applicable in my life. Though I'm still in the first chapter,
I have already seen growth in myself and a deeper love for the word again.
While memorizing my daily verses I came across this:
"In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory." (Ephesians 1:13-14 ESV)
While reading, repeating, and reciting this, I began to
realize this is what I had been doing. I had rested in the guarantee of our
faith and become complacent to it. As the passage clearly states we are sealed
with the Holy Spirit. He is the guarantee of our inheritance when we obtain it
by reaching eternity with Christ. This is our promise during our
sanctification. But this does not mean we sit by idly. We must act.
Lets view it as this. On a game show we gain immunity somehow. Normally we play it safe and don't exert ourselves in an extreme amount. We've gained a guarantee into the next round so why risk anything? This is the exact opposite of what we as followers of Christ should maintain in our lives. Just because we have a guarantee for our eternity does not mean we sit idly by in our lives and become complacent to the gospel. This guarantee should motivate us and shape us into studying the word more, diving in deeper, and going before God to reveal himself more to us daily so we may become closer to him and to use our lives for his glory. That is what we live for. We have heard and received the gospel that he revealed to us, sending his Holy Spirit to seal us so that we may live our lives in accordance to his word and to his glory and honor and praise. Let us not grow complacent to his word but seek him through it so that he may be glorified by our lives.
"He must increase, but I must decrease." (John 3:30 ESV)
(Photo Credit: http://blog.tifwe.org/how-do-markets-handle-sin-human-nature/)
