Welcome!
Today: Spiritual formation
Passage: Eph 4
1 As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. 2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. (Eph 4, NIV 84)-emphasis added
God was so pleased to call us unto Himself
The Character of the Christian is shaped by Christ, from within
When there is true repentance, there is true transformation
Spiritual formation is a very important process every Christian should go through
If our relationship with Christ does not change our Character, something is wrong with that relationship
19 My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you, (Gal 4, NIV)
When we say “yes” to Christ, we must allow Christ to be “formed” in us
As we allow the Spiritual formation of our life, the formation of our ministry will follow. If we do not let Christ do the character change (formation) in us, and we do the ministry, we will hear lot of noise
7 In building the temple, only blocks dressed at the quarry were used, and no hammer, chisel or any other iron tool was heard at the temple site while it was being built. (1 Kings 6, NIV)
When we allow all the sharp corners in our life be a”dressed” by God and His word, there will be much less noise in the church, home and elsewhere we go
In the verses from Ephesians 4 mentioned above, we see two pairs: “humble and gentle”, “patient and bearing with one another”
“Humbleness” is a matter of the heart, which helps us to be gentle with others. If you are not humble, you cannot be truly gentle
Without patience, you cannot truly bear with others
There is fake gentleness that people act, even when not humble; there is also fake “bearing with one another” where they keep the grudge in the heart and put a “smile” on the face. That is not what the Apostle is talking about
True gentleness comes from a heart of true patience and forgiveness
You don’t become a “gentleman” just because someone calls you so
Our family and friends must say so
We are called to live the life of Christ, before we start witnessing Him to others
How good are we, in living the life worthy of our great calling?
How much patience, humbleness and gentleness we have?
When we loose our temper, how worse we (can) become?
Let us allow Christ to do the complete (trans)formation in us
We will go deeper on this, in the days to come
God bless
BG
Prayer: Lord Jesus, I admit that I made you stop that process of character change in me. Please continue the spiritual formation in me, because I still need to change a lot, before I could influence others for good. Thank you; Amen