From The Inside Out

From the Inside Out

Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy.

Ephesians 4:24

Growing up I learned the “wrongs” and “rights” of being a follower of God. It was wrong to steal, to kill, to lie, and to covet another person’s belongings. It was wrong to disobey my parents and to worship idols. There were many wrongs, and as a kid I tried to do the best I could to obey. The problem was that for many years I knew the rules, but I didn’t understand the meaning behind them—which was to help me to have a pure heart and grow in my relationship with Jesus Christ.

In any religion this is a concern. Rules are easy to learn and memorize, but they are harder to live. Rules are easy to break and even easier to walk away from. Because we get tired of trying to live by rules, it becomes easy to walk away from God. Many Amish are seeing this to be true in their faith, too, as noted by a letter from a bishop in the Amish magazine Family Life:

One danger I see among our “plain” churches is the tendency to focus on our plain ways and hold to them successfully, but meanwhile become lax in other areas of the Christian life. . . .

A church that gives us separation from the world is a church that will apostatize from the outside in. But a church that successfully maintains a separate lifestyle but fails to apply other Bible principles will apostatize from the inside out.

We must put forth an honest effort to follow Christ in all His ways if we are to maintain a true church for the coming generations.

When it comes to your own life, are you more focused on the rules or on a relationship? Allow God to transform you from the inside out so that His life flourishes within you.

Dear heavenly Father, it’s easy for me to look at rules and obey them, but today I ask You to help me focus on my relationship with You that renews me within.