 I’m drawn to a couple of verses in Colossians this week.
“Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving” (Col. 2:6-7 ESV). I want to focus on three different parts of this scripture. First, “walk in him.” This makes sense. I mean, we should walk in the footsteps of Jesus Christ. In fact, the Bible says, “If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit” (Gal. 5:25 ESV). This verse from Galatians falls shortly after the Fruits of the Spirit. In other words, when we “walk in him,” we sacrifice our fleshly desires and make room for the Holy Spirit.  Decisions can be daunting. As I get older, I find myself facing more and more decisions. Knowing my decisions lay the foundation for my future, I often find myself afraid of messing up.
The natural thing to do when faced with a decision is to talk about it with someone else. But I’m learning an important lesson: people usually don’t know the answer. For the past several weeks, I’ve been contemplating a big decision. Naturally, I’ve discussed this decision with numerous people. However, different people give me different responses. One person says this, and another person says that. In other words, if I listen to every voice, I find myself in a handful of different situations at the same time. And that means confusion.  Last Friday, I found myself depressed. I opened God’s Word, and He began speaking this message to my heart. I pray it helps someone.
“After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the twelve, ‘Do you want to go away as well?’ Simon Peter answered him, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God’” (John 6:66-69 ESV). I’m drawn to this story. Why? Because I find myself pondering Peter’s question: “Lord, to whom shall we go?”  I don’t know about you, but I enjoy looking at nice homes along the road. Beautiful brick patterns. Unique roof pitches. Fancy windows. It’s fun to admire such homes, but there’s something I never look at — the foundation.
Every beautiful home needs a solid foundation. But we never pay attention to foundations. Instead, we marvel at what meets the eye. We gasp in amazement at the brick walls, but we don’t even consider the foundation holding those walls up. Our culture cares more about looks than legitimacy. This is most obvious in our perception of people, including ourselves. We often base those perceptions on appearance rather than foundation. As a result, we’re deceived into toxic relationships and find it difficult to live consistently with ourselves. We don’t know who we are. |