Called to More

You know, following Christ isn't an easy life. It is a blessed life, it is a grace-filled life, but it’s certainly not easy.   

Though we are His, our human nature didn’t just disappear. We still have our old habits and desires. Like every other human that walks the earth, we have tendencies to be self-focused and involved, more concerned with ourselves and our own comfort than anyone else’s. 

But God calls us to so much more.

For though our human nature remains, our spiritual nature is changed the moment we accepted Christ as Savior. The Holy Spirit now lives inside of us. And with that spiritual change comes the power for us to be different, to live our lives as a reflection of Christ. 

But for us to answer the call to be different than the world, we actually have to be different. We have to think differently, respond differently, and love differently. And that’s where things get hard. 

God calls us to things that are antithesis to our human nature. He calls us to: 

• Forgive readily (Colossians 3:23)
• Control our thoughts (2 Corinthians 10:5)
• Love our enemies (Matthew 5:44)
• Wait patiently (Psalm 37:7)
• Not worry (Matthew 6:34)
• Trust God (Proverbs 3:5)
• Put on love (Colossians 3:14)
• Bless our haters (Romans 12:14)
• Live humbly (Proverbs 11:2)
• Live at peace with others (Romans 12:18)
• Manage our mouth (James 1:26)
• Deny our flesh (Galatians 5:19-21)
• Be still (Exodus 14:14) 

Those are hard things to do. Yet, God is good. He would never tell us to do something that we didn’t have the capacity for. Like babies learning to walk, it may not be natural, it may not be comfortable, and it certainly may not be easy, but what He calls us to do is possible. And even when it seems beyond our power, it’s never beyond His. 

So, in whatever situation you face today where your human nature wants to respond differently than the Spirit living inside you, remember this. 

He doesn’t call us to do the easy, He calls us to do the hard. 

And though we may falter and fail, as I do daily, we never stop striving. So that through the power of prayer and the power of the Holy Spirit which helps us, we become transformed little by little into a life that looks less like us and more like Jesus.

—Ann Wilds 

Whoever claims to abide in Him must walk as Jesus walked. —1 John 2:6