“You were taught, with regard to your former way of
life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful
desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the
new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” –
Ephesians 4:22-24 NIV
Most of us think that God has created and
put us on the earth to enjoy comfortable, satisfying, and peaceful life—according
to our own desires, passions, pleasures, and will. Therefore, we try our best
to love and live peacefully with others. In addition to this, we might even
want to have a high-paying job as everything does not go free these days. Hence,
we study very hard and work diligently until we get high position. If
situations and circumstances are going as we expected, we would thank God for
abundance lives that we could all have.
However, the truth is that God has created
us to be His image (Genesis 1:27). “For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the
image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and
sisters. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also
justified; those he justified, he also glorified.” (Romans 8:29-30) Therefore, we ought to be
like God in true righteousness and holiness (1 Peter 1:13-17). This is what Jesus Christ
was crucified for (2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 Peter 2:24-25), since everything has been
created in and for Him (Colossians 1:16-23). In addition, He was
resurrected, three days after His crucifixion (Luke 24:4-7). The main reasons why He was
resurrected is that God has wanted to show us the way of the eternal life and the
truth through Jesus Christ, the perfect image of God (John 14:6-7). This is why God has wanted to
pour His Spirit into us, to advocate us to walk with Him until the end of the
age, due to the fact that His Spirit is the Spirit of the life (John 6:63), the Spirit of the truth (John 16:7-15), the Spirit of the
righteousness (Romans 8:1-17), and the Spirit of the
holiness (John 14:15-27).
Nonetheless, the Spirit of God is available
to everybody and Jesus Christ is waiting for us to open the door of our hearts
to Him, so that He is able to fully come in into our hearts as the Spirit (Revelations 3:20). We are able to know that
the Spirit of God is within us when we commit our lives to Him by repentance (Acts 2:38-39; Acts 3:19-20). Nevertheless, most of us are
mistaken with moments of inspiration with the guidance of the Holy Spirit. They
are similar but they are different. Moments of inspiration is just the
empowerment of the Holy Spirit but the guidance of the Spirit is some kind of
the conviction that always tells us what to do in and for Jesus (Ezekiel 36:26-27), and that He is only the
way of the life and the truth (John 14:6-7).
Be very careful,
then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every
opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but
understand what the Lord’s will is. Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to
debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. (Ephesians 5:15-18)
Lord,
help us to be like You in true righteousness and holiness,
For we
have been created to be Your image.
So we
open our hearts to You,
In order
that you might work powerfully within us
through
the Sprit of God.
in
Jesus’ name, we pray, Amen!
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