Kingdom Econ

[The Midweek Encounter is a ministry of Encounter Church in Kentwood, MI. These posts are reflections on Sunday's message, which can be heard here each week: http://myencounterchurch.org/#/messages-media] 

I started college pursuing a degree in Consumer Economics. True confession: I did not  know what that degree was about. I chose it because the classes looked doable and didn’t appear to require dissecting a worm, frog, pig, or cat. There was a requirement for Calculus which I took year one. Not particularly wise for someone who hates math, however I had a mostly positive outcome given my ability to brown nose the Professor and my good fortune to have a math major for a roommate. 

Here is a current definition of Consumer Economics: a branch of economics; It is a broad field, principally concerned with microeconomic analysis behavior in units of consumers, families, or individuals.

What? Microeconomic analysis? Whatever. I never did get that degree.  

This week at Encounter, we got schooled in some Kingdom Economics. This too is a broad field, concerned with all aspects of human behavior.  A financial behavior Pastor Dirk taught us was the three jar method of SPEND, SAVE, & SHARE. He pointed out that the SAVE jar is really a SPEND jar on future me!  Doesn’t that make saving easier? However our focus this week was remembering to look at the SHARE jar with this principal from God’s economy (so very different than a consumer economy), that being generous today will change the world tomorrow.  

The SHARE jar has in it potential to be useful for helping alleviate need. Paul writes to Jesus followers in Corinth with the Jerusalem followers in mind.  Paul says: Remember, how you plant will influence what you reap. Plant little, reap little. Plant strife, reap discord. Plant generously, reap abundance. The church - our fellow followers in Jerusalem have great need. You have great abundance. You offered a gift; be ready; be generous; I’m on my way to get and deliver your SHARE jar.  

The SHARE jar has potential for heart change. Giving something away requires decision about where, when, and how much. Giving something away also comes with attitude. Sharing what we consider ours can look like  prying off fingers, or handing over dutifully. Sometimes it's done with letting-go panic; religious guilt; reluctance. Paul doesn’t address what amount or percent of our means to consider, he addresses the posture of our heart, the most important part of giving.   

  “Each one must do as he has made up his mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that you may always have enough of everything and may provide in abundance for every good work.     2 Corinthians 9: 7-8

Kingdom Economics: God provides for us. He instructs us to be good stewards of all that we have.  He opens up opportunities for us to participate in Kingdom work by sharing some of what we have.  But wait, there’s more: God provides more, an abundance in fact, so we may have plenty left over to share. We give a portion. God gives abundance. We will always be able to give generously because of how God’s economy works. If we remember that, why would we give any other way than cheerfully, eagerly, faithfully, willingly, gratefully?

  

A cheerful giver might offer something other than money. Time, talent, or even a four-legged treasure. Scotch  once belonged to my daughter Lauren. She spent a lot of her life on his back riding, jumping, competing in 4-H. When Lauren was in college JR and I moved from Colorado where Scotch lived, to Florida, so Lauren tried to find a home for her handsome horse in MI. The search ended with a heart breaking realization she might have to sell him. Many years earlier some friends of ours talked about starting a therapy ranch for families who had all different types of needs. Lauren reached out to them to find out their ranch status. They had moved onto the perfect place and were starting to bring on the animals. The day prior to Lauren's call, Kaarin, the owner, had just returned two donated unhealthy horses. She was discouraged. After a long conversation with Kaarin, Lauren told us that she was going to give Scotch and all of his tack to Kaarin. Scotch, now known as Butterscotch, became Guided Hope’s first horse, the patriarch, and carrier of all the smallest children. The Lord provided Scotch for Lauren for a season of life and she was abundantly blessed. She decided to share him with Guided Hope, and he continues to bless others in need.  

We  need the reminder of God’s Kingdom Economics. We need reminders of what giving  translates into; how it changes our heart; how it changes a broader world. We need to be reminded as our fellow followers in Corinth were reminded that cheerful giving is trust in God’s abundance and results in thanksgiving.  


[Laura DeGroot likes to laugh out loud, drink good coffee and eat delicious food...with Jesus her family and friends.  She has lived from the West to the East coast but Grand Rapids is home as of one whole year.  As The Caffeinated Woman, she speaks to groups of people about how ordinary life is profoundly better knowing an Extraordinary God, and works at Art Of The Table.  And she loves books.]

The Sacred Ordinary

[The Midweek Encounter is a ministry of Encounter Church in Kentwood, MI. These posts are reflections on Sunday's message, which can be heard here each week: http://encounterchurch.org/messages] 

I’m passionate about bread-baking. I love everything about it—the yeasty smell, the kneading, the shaping, and the smell as it bakes. If you ask me about baking bread, my social filters will immediately disappear and I will proceed to talk endlessly about loaves that are slow fermented versus a fast ferment, the qualities of hard wheat and soft wheat, using sprouted grains leftover from beer-making to flavor bread, and creating a sourdough starter. When your eyes begin to glaze over, that will not stop me. I may regain your interest when I mention that bread rises due to yeast farts, only to lose it once more when I begin to explain the differences between bigas, soakers, starters, or a poolish. (Yes, poolish is a real word.) You may try to edge away, now knowing more about bread than you ever cared to know. The plus side is that when people show great interest in bread conversation, I usually bring them a loaf of bread at some point.  As you can see, baking bread brings me great joy, and it has also become a spiritual practice. With the word “bread” being mentioned at least 492 times in the Bible in the original languages, as well as being an important element of the sacrament of communion, it is not hard for me to see the kingdom of God breaking in when I make bread.

Photo Credit: Mike Kenneally

In the following clean up time? Not so much. Kneading dough on my kitchen counter leaves a sticky residue that is difficult to remove—it will quickly gum up any dishcloth and usually requires a good scraping. If you walk away for a well-deserved cup of coffee, you will return to find that any dough left on the bowl or utensils has hardened to the consistency of cement and will need to be chipped away with a knife. And since I am a messy baker, dough bits are everywhere. At this point in the process, I’d love to be a celebrity chef with an assistant to do the clean up.

Unfortunately, no matter how I read it, Colossians 3:23 reads “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters.” It does not say, “You only have to work for the Lord doing things you love.” What a bummer. But the discipline of working for the Lord, cooperating with grace and gratitude begins in the little things, each and every day. It means growing an attitude along with an action. Jesuit Brother Rick Curry, author of “The Secrets of Jesuit Breadmaking” recounts that the Rule of St. Benedict reminds the monks to regard all the utensils of the monastery as if they were sacred vessels of the altar. Kitchen rules dictated that if a spoon was dropped, the monk who dropped it was to bend down and kiss it. It created a respect for the commonplace tools of the kitchen. (If this were the rule in my kitchen, I would spend a lot of time on my hands and knees.) But the idea is sound—all the work we do, big or little, loved or endured, is sacred work, a chance to participate with God’s transforming work in us and in our world. 

I think there is a reason Jesus uses so many common things to talk about the kingdom of God. Salt. Light. Bread. Seeds. Coins. Yeast. Easy to understand, yes, but they also show God’s kingdom breaking through and illuminating the ordinary, everyday tasks of life. Shoveling snow is kingdom work, feeding a baby is kingdom work, web design is kingdom work, homework is kingdom work, serving coffee is kingdom work, delivering mail is...well, you’re a smart person, you know where this is going.

“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, 

as working for the Lord…” Colossians 3:23

[Sandy Navis is happily retired and spends her days doing pretty much whatever she wants to do. She is a firm believer in the power of laughter, singing while doing the dishes, crazy dancing while cleaning house, and eating chocolate every day. Sandy has three grandkids, who she loves to talk about even more than breadmaking.]

Fruit of the Harvest

[The Midweek Encounter is a ministry of Encounter Church in Kentwood, MI. These posts are reflections on Sunday's message, which can be heard here each week: http://encounterchurch.org/messages] 

Have you ever had one of those really intense reflective moments that tend to happen very late at night or very early in the morning—one of those moments where you see yourself and your life in an entirely different light, and suddenly things become clear? Your path of change is laid out in your mind and you are ready to take action. And then, you wake up to face the next day, and go about your normal tasks as always. A week goes by, and still you take no action on your “epiphany”…then you wake up a few months later and think, how did I get here? Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

We live in a world where we want instant gratification and quick fixes. Instead of putting in hours at the gym, maybe we can simply drink a strange concoction of apple cider vinegar and lemon juice to melt off our extra weight. Or, when it comes to professional development, isn’t it easier to `just keep getting the job done rather than pushing yourself to grow and innovate? As the mom of a 7-month-old, I’m notorious for reading articles such as “5 steps to night-weaning,” “10 minutes to keeping your house spotless,” and “3 ways to help your child nap longer.” But as we all know, most of those step-by-step processes don’t work. Babies start teething or get sick; your house becomes infested with carpenter ants (yes, really—that happened this week); or you are gone all weekend and your child only sleeps while riding in the car.

Change doesn’t happen overnight, but it does tend to happen over time, little by little. Every small decision we make can eventually lead to end results. Choosing to have a side salad instead of fries. Attending a webinar on collaboration through servant leadership to push your team to the next level. Putting your child to bed at approximately the same time every night. While some of these decisions might be intentional, the reality is that we make small decisions everyday without giving them a second thought.

Photo credit: Flickr Creative Commons, user winecountrymedia

These small decisions can either lead to destruction or eternal life. As Paul writes in Galatians 6:9, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” Good decisions compounded over a long period of time can produce great results. We might not have instant gratification, but we should not give up in daily seeking to model our lives after Christ. Perseverance in doing good will lead to a bountiful harvest; we must only be patient and wait on the Lord’s timing to see His fruit.

God wants to plant in us the fruits of the Spirit—“love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23). When He sows these seeds in our heart, they will grow, and in His timing will produce amazing fruit for His Kingdom.

However, we can also let the acts of the flesh grow in our hearts—“sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like” (Galatians 5:19-21). Some items on this list might seem extreme, but it only takes small steps in the wrong direction to lead to destruction.

For example, your mind strays just a little too far when you see a suggestive ad on TV; that turns into time spent on your computer looking at pornography; and that can lead further down the path of sexual immorality. Or, you spend one night drinking too much, only to find yourself months later binging every weekend, realizing that alcohol has consumed your social life, your finances, and your self worth. It’s so much easier to trick ourselves into thinking that one small decision won’t make a big difference in our lives. But the reality is that these seemingly insignificant decisions really determine the direction of our heart’s compass.

So, in light of the fruit of the sinful nature and the fruit of the spirit, is there a sense in which your heart needs a recalibration to true north—towards Christ—in order to avoid destruction? God wants us to seek Him in every small and large decision in order to plant the seeds of the fruits of the Spirit and bring His kingdom here on earth. Reflect on your own life today and ask God to reveal to you areas in which your heart might need a recalibration to true north. Then ask that He help you begin the process of eternal change, one step at a time, so that you might reap the bountiful harvest of His Kingdom.

[Megan Stephenson is a proud new mom to her seven-month-old son August and spends her days trying to figure out how to take care of her tiny human. She also works for a private education group in Grand Rapids as an Assistant Registrar. Megan loves spending time with her husband, Ben, trying out new breweries, restaurants, and local attractions. She also self-identifies as a crazy cat lady, despite owning no cats of her own, thanks to her loving and allergic husband.] 

Making Decisions in a World of Grey

[The Midweek Encounter is a ministry of Encounter Church in Kentwood, MI. These posts are reflections on Sunday's message, which can be heard here each week: http://myencounterchurch.org/#/messages-media] 

Many decisions we make have simple, clear-cut answers if we’re striving to follow Jesus. To yell at the coworker who made an honest mistake, or to not yell? To cheat on the physics exam, or to not cheat on the physics exam? To lie to our spouse about how we spent money, or to not lie? These answers are, in most circumstances anyway, pretty black and white. They’re rarely the ones we spend a lot of time worrying about though. Decisions that eat up our worrying time are usually all sorts of grey, with any number of solutions that could be God-honoring. Where to go to college? When to have kids? Whether or not to take the new job? While we can be confident that God will use whatever situations our choices place us in, that confidence doesn’t provide much practical help in how to actually make the decision.

Photo Credit: Behr.com

In the story of King Rehoboam, we see a decision maker who started off in a good way. Instead of making a rash, rushed decision when the people came to him asking for a lighter workload, he told them to come back in three days and then sought counsel. First he asked the wisdom of the elders who had seen the country through difficult times in the past. Then, he decided to get a second opinion by consulting the men he had grown up with and who knew him well. Up to this point, Rehoboam was actually making pretty good decisions. It can be advantageous to get input from various types of people, maybe some who have a better understanding of the situation and some who have a really good understanding of us as a person.

Unfortunately, things went downhill from there. Instead of carefully weighing the input he had received from the elders and from his friends and then using that information to make the best possible decision, Rehoboam simply opted for the advice of his not-so-wise friends without considering the consequences. He didn’t just ignore the people’s request for a lighter workload, he did the exact opposite and gave them more work to do, as well as threatened them with whipping.  

As we seek wisdom from those around us, we have to remember that not all the input we’ll receive is equal. The older advisers had spent time with Rehoboam’s dad Solomon as he ran the country and had a good understanding of how the people worked and what they would respond well to. Rehoboam’s friends knew him well, but they clearly didn’t have his or the country’s best interest in mind with their advice.

Not everyone has deserves the right to speak into our lives or into a particular decision we’re trying to make. Building a strong community full of people with wisdom that can be trusted takes time and effort--it’s not something we should simply stumble into overnight. Inviting people into our lives and allowing them to see who we really are, even in our most unpleasant, unglamorous moments can be God’s way of shaping us into better versions of ourselves. True wisdom sometimes looks like letting trustworthy people who are striving after Christ help us at the times we need it most.  At the same time, if others seek our input, we must consider our words carefully, taking into account everything we know about that person and the situation they’re dealing with. It is a gift and also a weighty responsibility to be invited to speak into someone’s life. We must use our words to build up, encourage, and guide. Even wise people can inadvertently give advice that misses the whole picture.

Our decisions are ultimately our own, but there’s no reason we have to make them completely on our own. We can learn from Rehoboam’s mistakes and seek out wisdom from good places, and then truly take the time to consider it carefully and match it up with what we already know. Making decisions and trying to follow God’s will doesn’t have to be as grey and murky as we often make it, as long as we have put in the work ahead of time and have community around us to help guide us along the way.

[Brianna DeWitt believes in Jesus, surrounding yourself with good people, and that desserts are best when they involve chocolate and peanut butter. She writes about faith, growing up, and whatever else pops into her head on her own blog, and tweets (largely about food) at @bwitt722.]

Flowers, Birds, and The Way of Holiness

[The Midweek Encounter is a ministry of Encounter Church in Kentwood, MI. These posts are reflections on Sunday's message, which can be heard here each week: http://myencounterchurch.org/#/messages-media]

On my third pass stomping from the garage, through the laundry room where my mother was calmly ironing my hubby’s shirts, down the hall and into the kitchen, sighing, slamming, a little tiny bit of swearing…my mother asked, “What’s wrong?”

Clearly something was wrong.

“I lost my driver’s license. I have looked everywhere, dumped out my purse, checked every pocket possible and stuck my finger under the seats, around the seats and even in the seat cracks where no fingers should have to go. I do NOT have time for a lost license. Do you know how awful it is to go to DMV to get a new one? I have no idea where else to look.”

My calm mother, still running the hot iron back and forth over JR’s thirty fifth shrink and wrinkled work shirt asked, “Did you pray about it?”

Did I PRAY about it?

What kind of a question is that - did I pray about a lost driver’s license? As if Jesus wants to have a conversation with anyone about their silly little inconvenience. No, actually, I didn’t. 

Photo Credit: Fré Sonneveld

But then I did. I went in the bathroom which adjoined the laundry room where wise mother ironed, pretended to be using it by staying in for about that long, flushed the toilet, turned on the water and washed my hands. And I talked to Jesus. The prayer may have taken on an embarrassed, whiny, somewhat desperate tone. But I prayed. 

The fourth time into the garage, I opened the back door again, laid my hand under the driver’s seat again and set it on top of the driver’s license. I am not kidding. I cried. I am not kidding. When I came in the house crying my mom asked again, “What’s wrong?” And with tears I showed her the little plastic card.

“So why are you crying?” calm mother asked.

“Because I can’t believe God cares enough about something so insignificant. I can’t believe he would answer my belligerent plea for help and I didn’t even think to ask until you told me to, which I thought was silly at first and I didn’t even go to the bathroom,” I replied.

Eye rolling would have been justified. But my mom smiled and reminded me that God wants us to talk to Him about everything, anything, anytime, anywhere.

I wasted a big dose of worry, but the Lord didn’t waste that experience. I have not forgotten how I felt seen by God and responded to immediately even with my poor attitude. That one on one cheap life lesson has helped direct me to live into the truth that He cares about my basic needs, so of course He cares about what matters Most.

Sunday morning, Pastor Dirk pointed us to Matthew 6: lessons learned from birds and flowers. Birds trust God for their basic needs without worrying. God is their Master, but he is our Father, so we don’t need to be anxious. Flowers are frail and their life is short, and yet God takes care of clothing them in unmatched beauty. Jesus wants us to live as if it were true, that God sees every single one of our needs and our wants. And he cares for us, and will take care of us. When we worry, we elevate the object of of our worry to the status: What Matters Most. Jesus is teaching those who follow him that in God’s kingdom, life is more than food, clothing, politics, paychecks, work, school, housing, transportation, and vacations. What matters Most is who we are becoming, our souls, His transforming work in us. God does not want anxious thoughts to disturb our hope, our sleep or the enjoyment of this life he gave us.

How can we chase after what matters most to God? What would living look like if we ended aiming our anxiety at worldly concerns? Jesus gave a command: don’t worry. And he gave the alternative: Seek First Holiness, which is the way of God’s kingdom. Jesus said First Seek Righteousness, which is knowing God, not just knowing about God. Bring first your frustrations, your discouragement, your sorrow, your anger, the hurt that makes you hurt people; bring your exhaustion, your fears, your feelings of being trapped; bring the dreams, the longings, the helplessness, the tiniest bit of hope that’s left--bring it to God. You can trust him with it all. Bring it first thing in the day. First before the phone. First before food and friends and family. Chase after what matters most and be thankful as the Holy One does Holiness work in you. Becoming more trusting, more thankful, more forgiving, more kind, and more accepting should not surprise you when you are Seeking God First.

I’m still prone to dramatic frustration and door slamming, though less so than years ago when I lost my license the first time. I continue to learn that God is trustworthy in the minutia and the mountains of living. Though I struggle with anxiety, I keep showing up First thing in the morning to talk to Jesus, to look for His best for me, to listen for what He needs me to hear.

What if you took one small action this week to learn from lesson of the birds and the flowers, to Seek first Holiness, to First seek what matters Most?

You can trust that your life is in good hands. 

[Laura DeGroot likes to laugh out loud, drink good coffee and eat delicious food...with Jesus her family and friends.  She has lived from the West to the East coast but Grand Rapids is home as of one whole year.  As The Caffeinated Woman, she speaks to groups of people about how ordinary life is profoundly better knowing an Extraordinary God, and works at Art Of The Table.  And she loves books.]

How to Find God's Map for Your Life

[The Midweek Encounter is a ministry of Encounter Church in Kentwood, MI. These posts are reflections on Sunday's message, which can be heard here each week: http://myencounterchurch.org/#/messages-media] 

“I wish God would show me a map of my life,” I’ve often said. When we’re trying to figure out what God wants us to do, it seems like giving us very clear directions would be the kindest thing. Yet, at least in my own life, I rarely find the answers as easy as typing in my destination on Google Maps. Seeking God’s will seems like a great thing to do, but actually finding his will can seem nearly impossible. When we look to the Bible for people who faced difficult decisions, Esther is an excellent example. 

Photo Credit: Andrew Neel

At first Esther's story seems picture perfect. Plucked from obscurity, she won the favor of the king and and was chosen over all the other beautiful women to become the next queen. As she lived a life of luxury in the palace though, not all was well for the rest of the Jews in the land. One of King Xerxes’ advisors schemed to eradicate the entire people group. For Esther, “hiding” in the king’s palace may have seemed like a literal lifesaver as news of this plot spread. But then a letter from her Uncle Mordecai reminded Esther that even she would not be safe forever, and her position as the queen offered a unique opportunity to perhaps make a difference. While the dark tone of Mordecai’s letter seems almost threatening, he also tells Esther, “For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?”” (Esther 4:14).

It can’t have been an easy choice. Esther knew that she only became queen because her predecessor, Queen Vashti, had been removed from the throne for disobeying the king. By planning to approach the king without being asked, Esther was about to disobey in her own way. She had no way of knowing what would happen, and the stakes were high: Either she'd come out of the encounter still alive, or she would be dead. Her response, while maybe offered with terror in her heart, was, “And if I perish, I perish.” 

Rarely do decisions in our lives have such high stakes, yet we often waffle over them much more than Esther did. Mordecai had faith things would turn out somehow--“Relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from some other place”--but Esther was willing to make the choice to do the hard thing she knew was right. What we see in Esther is her willingness to make a choice. She didn’t do it naively or without consideration--she and her attendants and Mordecai and all the Jews in Susa fasted and prayed for three days--but then she made the choice and carried out her plan.

Circumstances in our own lives might not come with a clear right and wrong answer, which can make it even more confusing when we’re trying to discern God’s will. Deciding between two colleges with good programs, deciding whether or not to sell our house, deciding which church God wants us to attend--we can become so afraid of making the “wrong” choice that we make no choice at all. In my own life, there have been times where I waited days or weeks under the guise of “seeking God’s will,” when really had all the information I needed and was simply delaying the inevitable. The book of Esther never explicitly mentions God, but from her action of praying and fasting, we can safely assume she had some level of relationship with him. If that’s true in our own lives, we can make our decisions with the confidence Mordecai had that deliverance would come from somewhere. 

We can’t forget the true peril Esther was in, though. She didn’t know what the outcome of her story would be. Yet even if the king had ordered her to be killed, I think we can still draw the same lessons from her story. Esther used the information she had to make the best decision she could in the moment, then trusted God enough to let him use her however he saw fit. Picking the college we think God wants us to might not go perfectly--the classes might not be as good as we thought they would be, or the friendships might not develop the way we had hoped. Buying a house might eventually lead us to financial distress. Going to a specific church might result in hurt feelings and divisiveness. It can make us question if we got God’s will wrong along the way. But maybe the more important question is if we trust God enough to use whatever happens to make us better, holier, and more like him. 


[Brianna DeWitt believes in Jesus, surrounding yourself with good people, and that desserts are best when they involve chocolate and peanut butter. She writes about faith, growing up, and whatever else pops into her head on her own blog, and tweets (largely about food) at @bwitt722.]

New Year's Fresh Start

[The Midweek Encounter is a ministry of Encounter Church in Kentwood, MI. These posts are reflections on Sunday's message, which can be heard here each week: http://encounterchurch.org/messages] 

Photo credit: Flickr Creative Commons user Nanagyei

As the countdown to January 1, 2017 began, my thought process looked a little something like this:

I really should make more time to exercise; we bought that elliptical last year after all. And instead of watching reruns of 24, maybe I will create and implement a cleaning schedule for our house. While I’m at it, I might as well re-organize our closets and pantry, shedding all our excess stuff and starting fresh. And I should definitely be consistent with my devotions each day, and probably learn how to teach my baby sign language, and the list goes on and on.

New Year’s resolutions often seem like the one opportunity each year to get it right—to finally eat healthy food, exercise often, read good books, focus on professional development, spend more time with family, volunteer, or reach a number of personal goals. The hype around a fresh start can’t be ignored, with countless advertisements for discounted gym rates and the “new year, new you!” mantra popping up on our screens. It’s easy to get sucked in and think that this might be your year to change whatever bad habit, fault, or shortcoming you may have.

However, I think we often lose sight of the big picture when we focus on temporary artificial improvements in our lives. And, unlike the media’s portrayal of New Year’s, we get an opportunity to change more than once per year. God offers us an opportunity to experience eternal change when we meet Him and encounter His love, grace, and salvation—and that can happen at any moment.

Paul writes in Ephesians 4:22-24:

You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

The Ephesians are being reminded that the only way to move on from your former life and “put off your old self” is to allow the Holy Spirit to renew your mind and start making you more like Christ. When you allow God to meet you where you’re at, He can remove your brokenness and sin, and begin the process of eternal change.  When you act upon your faith, you are being continually renewed in Christ.

So this New Year, instead of focusing on which habits to break or artificial changes to make, consider allowing God to renew your heart through personal relationship with Him. Through that intimate connection with Christ, your heart will change and it will be evident in everything you say and do. Allow Christ to give you a fresh start—to no longer let sin define who you are, but to accept the salvation of the cross and act in faith to begin a personal relationship with Him.

[Megan Stephenson is a proud new mom to her six-month-old son August and spends her days trying to figure out how to take care of her tiny human. She also works for a private education group in Grand Rapids as an Assistant Registrar. Megan loves spending time with her husband, Ben, trying out new breweries, restaurants, and local attractions. She also self-identifies as a crazy cat lady, despite owning no cats of her own, thanks to her loving and allergic husband.]