I love the early mornings because my mind is quiet from all noise and my heart is tender to the teachings of the Holy Spirit. I find comfort in knowing God’s mercies are waiting for me fresh and new every day. His grace is like a never-ending waterfall washing me clean from yesterday’s sins. Truly, there’s no other love more gracious and undeserving than God’s love being poured out on those who seek to spend time with Him.
For this reason, I am stirred to rise every morning to meet Him, to know His heart and to follow His ways. For I lift my eyes to the hills, where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth.
Walking daily in the ways of the Lord is hard. It requires a steadfast resolve to walk with the Holy Spirit and a committed response to turn from the desires of the flesh. Every day I battle the cravings within me that try to lure me away from the unknown blessings my Father has set for me. Every day I pray that my footing is secure in the Lord and that my heart remains unencumbered by my flesh.
My only hope in winning this battle is to allow the Holy Spirit to change my attitude towards the way I live, think and respond to life’s circumstances around me. A transformation of this magnitude requires a power greater than myself working inside me to renovate the desires of my heart in order to make the change from the inside out. Romans 12:2 says, do not conform any longer to the ways or patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
As believers in Jesus Christ we are instructed to put off the old self and all its earthly ways and to put on the new self that has been raised with Christ. This daily act of worship is a reflection of the transforming power that is at work in our heart and being made visible in our life. To put off the old self is to put to death what is earthly in us, such as: sexual immorality, impurity, idolatry, anger, revenge, gossip, slander, and all obscene talk. And to put on the new self, which is to live as God’s chosen, holy and beloved ones with a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, patience, and forgiveness. Extending to all our love which holds everything together in perfect harmony.
The decision to shed my old ways for the new ways found in Christ is a daily discipline. As I surrender and make way for the Holy Spirit to remodel and rebuild my heart the acts of the sinful nature will lose both their appeal and their power. In exchange, my life will become transformed into the image of God’s Son as the Spirit renovates and reshapes the desires of my heart to mirror the desires of God’s heart.
As a daughter of the King, chosen, holy and loved, I yield daily to this great exchange. To put off the old that is disillusioned and destructive and to put on the new, which is being transformed by knowledge of God into the likeness of His Son through the power of the Holy Spirit!
Walk on my friend, you are His beloved!
Live with Intention,
Gretchen