“As you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him” (Colossians 2:6).
It will take some thought and will power for you to live as a Christian today. Things will come at you that provoke your emotions. Someone says something that makes you angry and you immediately want to snap back. Something stirs anxiety and fear within you. Is it a financial worry? Health? Worrisome rumblings in an important relationship? A word, a story triggers guilt and shame about what you did, recently or long ago. The fact that you’re a Christian, not just in name but a true follower of Jesus, doesn’t remove you from human nature. You’re on the heaven-ward way, but, “No, we’re not there yet.” Therefore, “walk in him.”
“I lift up my eyes” (Psalm 121:1). Since so much comes at us head-on or heart-on, provoking quick emotional or intellectual responses, think vertically, not just horizontally. Dear God, I’m your child. Guide me in the way I should respond. Help me wait and ride out this feeling. Do you know that struggle? Do you know what it is not to react but to “sit there and do nothing?” Except that you’re doing something truly Christian. You’re thinking, you’re recalling God’s commandments, God’s promises, you’re seeking the way you should go, you’re in the vertical mode. “As you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith” (Colossians 2:6-7).
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