IGNITE: DAY 25

SCRIPTURE READING - DAY 25


I John 2:5-6

But those who obey God’s word truly
show how completely they love him.
That is how we know we are living in
him. Those who say they live in God
should live their lives as Jesus did. (NLT)

MEDITATION BY Kate White


I don’t know about you, but actually living by these words can seem ominous. I know I love God. He is my passion, my heart’s desire. I want him to know this. I want to live like Jesus did. But these words can make me feel like I fall short. He is sinless…I am not. He is God…I am human. How am I to comprehend this?

I have discovered that genuine transformation does not happen in the past or the future. It only happens now. If I read this passage and say, “Lord, forgive me for not obeying your Word more (the past)—I do love you,” or even “Help me to obey your Word more and live more like you (the future),” it is hard to see tangible change. I read the Word and applied it this way for years, and I have to say this left me feeling defeated at times.

Transformation also happens on a very small scale; it is the slightest degree or awareness of something new. So I ask: “Right now, in this moment, how am I obeying your Word? How am I living like you, Jesus?” Aside from some pat answers like, “I’m reading the Bible," or "I know a lot of verses by heart,”
I honestly don’t know.

I sit with these burning questions for a moment. The immediacy of “right now” and the fact that I don’t know stirs my heart and I tear up. A simpler answer fills me. “I am seeking you, Lord.” I hear his affirmation, “Yes.” I want to understand more; it is not just an exercise now…my heart is involved. My eye catches the phrase, “living in the Light,” from 1 John 1. Maybe this text holds some clues to living like Jesus.

A couple of verses stand out: Verses 5-6 say, “God is light and there is no darkness in him. So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth.” Verse 10 hits home too: “If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts.”

I go back to my burning questions: “How am I loving God and obeying his Word right now? How am I living like Jesus right now?”

My eyes tear up again. His light is clarifying truth in my life that I had not seen before. I am controlling and co-dependent in ways I haven’t been willing to admit. I have made problem solving my idol. Instead of trusting God,
I have become weary in self-reliance, all the while serving him and playing the martyr. What was once in the darkness is now coming into the light.

I answer God, “Lord, I think I’m practicing truth.” Another tear falls, and a moment passes. “I’m glad you only show me small glimpses of my sin at a time. I don’t know what I’d do with all of it at once.” Then I answer the second question, “I long to change, Lord. Thank you for giving me the longing.”




REFLECTION


How are you obeying God, loving God right now in this moment?


How are you living like Jesus right now in this very moment?


No insight or movement toward God is too small even if the answer is, “I don’t know.” Did you just discount an answer because you thought it was too small or insignificant?