Receiving God’s Wholeness - Part 1

DAILY BYTE

This coming week we will be considering a part of the way of transformation, called ‘Receiving God’s wholeness.’ This theme covers one of the cornerstone doctrines of Christianity, namely the doctrine of justification by faith. A famous verse from Ephesians 2:8 captures it well: “It is by grace that you have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.” Or as Eugene Peterson translates it: “Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it.”

The wholeness we yearn for, the healing of our brokenness that we so desperately need, the forgiveness of our sins and the abundant life of freedom that we desire - all this is God’s sheer gift to us, given graciously and generously without any strings attached.

But a gift not only needs to be given, it also needs to be received. This is our task and responsibility - it is the fundamental requirement of our faith.

PRAY AS YOU GO:

Lord, sometimes it’s hard to get my mind around the idea that everything I most need has already been given to me by you. I acknowledge that I find it difficult simply to receive what you freely offer, for my ego keeps on telling me that there must be more for me to do. Please give me the faith and the humility simply to take hold of what you have given and so to receive the gift of your wholeness in me. Amen

FOCUS READING:

Ephesians 2:1-10 – The Message

“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 pollute 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.

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 the 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.”