“Be imitators of God in everything you do, for then you will represent your Father as His beloved sons and daughters. And continue to walk surrendered to the extravagant love of Christ, for He surrendered His life as a sacrifice for us. His great love for us was pleasing to God, like an aroma of adoration – a sweet healing fragrance.” – Ephesians 5:1-2 (TPT)
Doesn’t it kind of blow you away, that God’s plan to spread the good news of the Gospel, was to entrust the message to the Church? A bunch of broken people…. Talk about a big responsibility, eh?!
While I think it can be so easy to put pressure on ourselves to do things perfectly, I love the fact that He knew us enough to know we couldn’t do it out of our own strength, but that we absolutely can do it with His Spirit in us. Aren’t you so thankful for the Holy Spirit?
As Jesus showed extravagant love to us by surrendering His own life as a sacrifice for the sins of the world, a surrendered life is all that is required of us in return. To surrender to our need for Jesus and Salvation. And then to daily surrender to Him, with the guidance of the Word of God, and the Spirit, Who reveals to us the meaning. It doesn’t matter what we used to do, who we used to be, by God’s grace He will show us how to imitate God in everything. How we think, what we say, and all that we do.
Perhaps our lives of continued surrender each day, would also be like a sweet aroma presented to the Lord. As we surrender to Him, we begin to reflect Him, as we reflect Him, we bring Him glory and praise before the throne of grace. May we walk surrendered each day, pursing lives worthy of our calling (ref. Eph 4:1) and may we desire more than anything to imitate the extravagant love of Christ.
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