Romans 8:5
After a tough day of labor and toil, with the body battered and exhausted, few things are more healing than a warm bath, soaking in the healing salts that loving hands have prepared and mixed in the bathtub just for us. Our lives are like that. When we are beaten and broken by moral failures and sins, our Lord awaits us with just the healing waters that we need to soak in.
Were it not for the redeeming blood of Christ, we would all be separated from God. Nothing could have covered our sins! It took Jesus' death on the cross to reconcile us to the Father, closing the gap for us. Jesus has broken down the wall and has brought us back to the Father through faith in Him. Jesus has taken the burden of sin away for all eternity. It is through Jesus that we seek God's face without shame.
"Seek the LORD and His strength; Seek His face continually" (I Chronicles 16:11)
We need our Lord Jesus Christ to help us with the burdens and struggles of sin. Our sins make us "broken" and in need of a Savior, Christ, to make us whole again. We need God's forgiveness, mercy, and steadfast love. In a few words, we need His Grace because our hearts are damaged by deception.
"The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; Who can understand it?" (Jeremiah 17:9)
It seems to me that many of us Christians get stuck in the brokenness and bondage of our sins, those sins that Jesus had to die for, rather than seeking wholeness. God wants us to seek wholeness with all of our hearts. He wants us to seek Him spiritually, mentally, and physically. He wants us to be whole.
We need God to make us whole. We need Him to help us with our sins. We must soak for a long time in wholeness and not remain so long in our brokenness. Whining about our brokenness cheapens the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ that was shed for our sins. The reason why the blood is cheapened is that "brokenness" is used as an excuse to justify not doing what Jesus wants us to DO.
It is through God's Grace that we are made whole again. We are made whole through the blood of our Redeemer, who heals our broken hearts, our broken families, bad habits, and patterns. The question is, can we live in His wholeness? Can we allow Him to make us whole? Can He fix the brokenness and soak us in His wholeness? We must make it our ambition to be whole (complete, full). This will last and never grow old!
We need to seek His mercy while we pursue the state of wholeness instead of focusing on our imperfections. We cannot afford to dwell on the failures of the flesh. This will prevent us from becoming whole. This will block our progress as Christians. We need to set our minds on the things of the Spirit. That is how we will find wholeness.
"For the mind set on the flesh is death , but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so; and those who are in the flesh cannot please God" (Romans 8:6-8)
To pursue wholeness, we must first seek God. This requires a lot of sacrifice, discipline, courage, steadfastness, dying to self, prayer, and, most importantly, a humble and willing heart to obey. Wholeness requires a lot of godly wisdom. We must put it on! We must throw out the old outfit and put on the new one. We must put on the new outfit of wholeness and dress our hearts with it; accessorize our minds with it; put on the new shoes of wholeness. A new wholeness now clothes our whole being! Are we trying at all to seek and do better? Are we faltering again into a state of brokenness? It is so easy to get comfortable in our brokenness without really diving into wholeness again. We dip our toe in wholeness, and we deceive ourselves into thinking that it is difficult. Why not dare to dive in, warm-up, and get used to it?
God desires that we live in His state of peace and wholeness. He wants to heal and repair the areas of our minds, hearts, and souls that need to be made new again. He is the Mender and Physician of our souls. Although there will be setbacks in our lives, challenges to overcome, battles to fight, victories to win, tears to wipe away, we must remember that we still need to seek and pursue wholeness. Trials are not an excuse for getting stuck in our brokenness. We must take them head-on with the wholeness of a new godly maturity!
It pleases God that we grow in Him; that we put on the new, spotless white robes that have been purified through the blood of Jesus in baptism to be healed and be made whole.
"In Him you also, after listening to the message of Truth, the Gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise... to the redemption of God's own possession, to the praise of His glory" (Ephesians 1:13-14).
"Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and anointed us is God, who also sealed us and gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge " (2 Corinthians 1:21-22).
May our Lord help us to be whole in Him. May He give us godly wisdom to seek Him with a heart willing to obey Him. May we walk in His light to have fellowship with Him (I John 1:6-7).
Luci
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