discipline and power.

so there's this balance.

and i'm beginning to discover more and more the beauty of this balance...

the harmony that God meant for us to experience when it comes to our walk with him.

the problem is...

we so often err to one side

and we miss it.

i've been on both ends and i still struggle with tipping one way or the other constantly.  

one side looks like this:

religion

often when i'm in religion mode... i think my walk has to be all about discipline, self-effort, strenuous moral striving to please God... this usually turns me into the prideful legalist or the self-loathing failure.  it is exhausting and unfulfilling.  i end up turning God into a formula rather than my Father... and Jesus into an equation rather than my lover.  and i turn into a judge.  and all the fun gets sucked out of everything.  

the other side looks like this:

passivity

at certain times in my walk i fall into complacency.  i just get into a slump.  i sort of just blow off God... and usually i use the excuse that i'm waiting on Him to do something.  i'm just sitting around... all the while, dying.  there is no seeking.  there is no dealing with icky sin.  i become idle... and i put a halt to anything God would use me for or do in my life.  i lose communication with Him.  life becomes hollow.

now i don't want it to sound like i'm saying that the gospel is compromise.  because it is not.  the gospel is something completely different and in and of itself.  

but in our walk, there are aspects of both of these completely wrong means, used in the proper context, that are required to press us toward godliness and into the jesus.

discipline is one.  we have to be obedient to his commands to get more of jesus.

waiting on the Lord is the other.  we need his power because without it, absolutely nothing can happen.

romans 1:7 says we are called to be saints.

ephesians 1:4 says we were chosen to be holy and blameless before him.

ephesians 4:1 says we are to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which we have been called.

this "walk"... our journey with jesus from the point we fall in love with him till the day we die... is to become godly.  and it takes some trying on our part.  the few truly godly people i know, didn't just get lucky and wake up godly.  they know scripture.  they pray.  a lot.  they disciple.  they deal with sin head on.  they fall more in love with Him everyday.  but this process toward godliness also takes God's hand.  becoming "God-like" obviously takes some serious molding from the creator.  our efforts are a measly reach without His power... but with Him, he can take our discipline and create a man or woman that is constantly in the operation of being perfected and sanctified.

we are already declared righteous.

now we get to spend the rest of our days

"walking in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called."