Relaxing In His Process

I often hear from people who read my blog, that have no idea that I post a regular podcast each week. That’s probably because it is on another website, TheGodJourney.com. As I take off for a week’s vacation with Sara and my daughter’s family, I thought I’d highlight the one we did yesterday, because we stumbled on to an essential freedom in this journey that I wouldn’t want many of you to miss it, or the wonderful conversation going on in the “comments” section.

It’s called “Living Beyond Our Transformation” and talks about the frustration people often feel at the freedoms they don’t have yet in their lives, as they struggle with temptation, fear, or anxiety. One of the great realities of knowing we’re loved and engaged in a process with Jesus, is that we get to relax in that process. He’s the one changing us and making us holy so when we come across those “unchanged-as-of-yet places” in our lives, we don’t have to try and outperform our relationship. Attempting to do so will only lead to certain failure and frustration as he has not yet made the inward changes in us necessary to sustain the freedom.

Whether you listen or not, I thought this encouragement is one that’s greatly needed and points the futility of living to a set of standards, that may express God’s holiness, but not the process we must be engaged in with him so he can make us holy. This is his work remember. He told us that apart from him, we could do nothing! I think the greatest failure of religion is to hold up a set of standards and demanding people meet it, without showing them how to engage a relation with Jesus that is essential for us to live in his holiness.

Transformation results from an ongoing engagement with Jesus. When you’re in that process you don’t have to panic when you find yourself unable to be perfect today. Instead you will be drawn back to him so that as your relationship with him grows, so will your freedom.