The way we were

Hi how are you all today? I have had a good week getting back to work and normal life after my wisdom tooth extraction. How was your week?

In this blog I want to look at the way we were. Just imagine for a minute that you were a butterfly. You are now flittering around and can fly where you like. There is a beauty about you and you are free. Others are noticing your pretty wings and telling you how much they admire you. But you can’t see your wings so don’t realise how amazing you are.

You have come through a transformation from a caterpillar through a cocoon to now. Your past doesn’t define you because now you have your wings and are free. But just think if a butterfly remembered the way they used to be, would they be more grateful now? Just a question to ponder.

Now think about your life. As a Christian you have also come through a transformation or renewal like that butterfly. Are we grateful still or have we become a little too familiar with our salvation and take lightly Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. Just a thought to ponder.

Whilst we are pondering this, let’s look at Ephesians 2 in the Message Bible, starting at verse 1:

⁶ It wasn’t so long ago that you were mired in that old stagnant life of sin. You let the world, which doesn’t know the first thing about living, tell you how to live. You filled your lungs with polluted unbelief, and then exhaled disobedience. We all did it, all of us doing what we felt like doing, when we felt like doing it, all of us in the same boat. It’s a wonder God didn’t lose his temper and do away with the whole lot of us. Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love, he embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on his own, with no help from us! Then he picked us up and set us down in highest heaven in company with Jesus, our Messiah.

These verses start by pointing out the way we were. We were lost in sin, living like the world and not knowing there was a better way of life.

It is only when we consider this in those moments of despair that we realise that there should be something better. Some people don’t even realise there is a better way- that is where us sharing our testimony comes in.

I love that the verses say God is rich in mercy. If He wasn’t we would still be the same. It is only Gods love and kindness to us that compels us to say “yes” to something better.

Let’s keep reading to verse 13.

¹⁰ Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It’s God’s gift from start to finish! We don’t play the major role. If we did, we’d probably go around bragging that we’d done the whole thing! No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving. He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing.

^11-13 But don’t take any of this for granted. It was only yesterday that you outsiders to God’s ways had no idea of any of this, didn’t know the first thing about the way God works, hadn’t the faintest idea of Christ. You knew nothing of that rich history of God’s covenants and promises in Israel, hadn’t a clue about what God was doing in the world at large. Now because of Christ—dying that death, shedding that blood—you who were once out of it altogether are in on everything.

Verse 11 is what I really want to point out- don’t take your salvation for granted. We need to remind ourselves of the way we were especially if we have walked with God a long time. God has done so much for us and we need to be grateful and worship him daily. We need to remember Jesus sacrifice and be so amazed that He came to offer us a more abundant life. We aren’t sinners anymore but loved sons and daughters of God.

Never forget where you came from for if you do, you may be unable to reach others for Jesus and you will be flippant with the grace of God. It is time for us to remind ourselves of the cost of our salvation and live accordingly.

Have a great week and keep living the life God intended for you.

Bless you

Karen