Bloom with God

Bloom with God

Bloom with God
Too often we take life granted. We forget how fragile we are. We forget that we can’t control everything. We forget that there are not guarantees in life. And most of all we focus on the earthly things and forget God. We flirt with the destructive things and wonder why we don’t feel close to God. We are in danger of becoming enemies of the cross.

As I have told you many times and now say with deep sadness, many people live as enemies of the cross.Their lives end with destruction. Their god is their stomach, and they take pride in their disgrace because their thoughts focus on earthly things(Phil.3:17-18, CEB,*, emphasis added)

We insist it does not matter how we live, what we think, how we behave. We make excuses for our behavior. We forget that God is God and we are not. We forget how much we need God. We forget how wonderful it is to live with God. We forget we can only bloom with God. Otherwise we just go through the motions. That’s actually the most important choice we ever make: choosing to bloom with God or live on our own.

If you turned your back,
    they’d die in a minute—
Take back your Spirit and they die,
    revert to original mud;
Send out your Spirit and they spring to life—
    the whole countryside in bloom and blossom.
(Psalm 104:29-30, MSG,*)

The power of the cross changes everything:
Because of Jesus sinners are welcome into the presence of God.
Because of grace our sins are forgiven.
Because of the Holy Spirit we bloom with God.

And that’s what life with God is all about. In Christ we find out true identity. And when we are what we were created to be, we blossom like never before. We think we know what’s best for us. But we don’t. Only God knows. That’s why we only bloom with God. Why would we choose anything else?

 

Gracious God,
Forgive our selfishness.
Forgive our transgressions.
Pour out grace upon grace
and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
We want to be friends of the cross!
We want to bloom with you.
Send your Holy Spirit!
Make us what you created us to be.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen

Q4U: Have you been in danger of becoming an enemy of the cross? How is your life as a friend of the cross? Do you bloom with God?

Be blessed, my fellow pilgrim, as you bloom with God!

* [As you might have noticed, I enjoy reading the Bible in different translations and love comparing them. I have started linking the Bible verses to Biblegateway.com so you can easily read (and compare) them in the different versions I’ve used while preparing each post.]

Image courtesy of Terry Lane, design Mari-Anna Stålnacke. Image courtesy of Doug Shelton, design Mari-Anna Stålnacke. This post is refurbished from 2010. Linking up today with Faith-filled Fridays,  Five Minute Friday and Faith Jam.

6 thoughts on “Bloom with God

  1. You said “We forget that God is God and we are not.” Sometimes it’s not a matter of forgetting. If you’ve been raised with the belief that you’re responsible for everyone and everything, it may be your picking up God’s responsibilites under the false assumption that they actually are yours. Great post!

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