Jesus healed the lame… cast out demons… restored vision and fed the hungry. Among many other recorded things that Jesus did while ministering on earth, every single act of love was the outpouring of what reigned inside Him internally. Jesus didn’t have to fake a smile, while secretly hiding inner thoughts toward others of being annoyed with them… His life portrayed the state of His Spirit.
In the same way, our lives are a reflection of our inner selves. While our outward actions will in fact be the demonstration others see around us, God sees to the root of it all… He knows the attitude of our hearts.. The words we speak that are in fact meaningless, because our thoughts convey the opposite… He knows where we stand on living out our will or His. There’s no hiding anything from our Creator.
“Then, so far as your former way of life is concerned, you must strip off your old nature, because your old nature is thoroughly rotted by its deceptive desires; and you must let your spirits and minds keep being renewed, and clothe yourselves with the new nature created to be godly, which expresses itself in the righteousness and holiness that flow from the truth.” – Ephesians 4:22-24
Let your spirits and minds keep being renewed…. This tells me that the inner work that we do with the Lord is an ongoing process and so important to guard us from not rotting away with deceptive desires. Like Jesus, who had to regularly go spend time with His Father in prayer, we too need to regularly be filled and encouraged in our spirit, in order to not leave ourselves in a state of depletion.
So how’s your inner self? Are you aware of what’s going on inside you? Is the old nature rising up in you, or is the Holy Spirit leading? Regular self-assessments on where we’re at is important, and vital for growth.
Holy Spirit, reveal what’s taking root in us. Change us. Grow us. Make us more like Jesus.
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