Settle Up

Settle Up

Throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes.

Ephesians 4:22-23

For many years I thought my role as a mom was to make my children conform—to see to it that they loved others, gave, served, and were sacrificial. But it’s hard to make our kids exhibit Christlike qualities if Christ isn’t living in them. It was very clear when each of my children accepted Christ and began to heed the Holy Spirit. He did a much better job of guiding!

In Amish communities some may see a night-and-day difference in young adults between the Rumspringa years and the time when they choose to accept Christ and settle down. As one Amish person, who wrote in to Family Life, acknowledges, young people need to be encouraged to change from the inside out.

It’s a dangerous thing to pressure someone into “settling down” without insisting that he also “settle up.” For it is quite possible for a young person to decide, when he gets tired of being nagged by the church and parents, that okay, he’ll conform. He may be ready to get married anyhow, and stay at home. So he agrees to drop his “wild life,” whatever that may include in his particular community. And relatives and parents, looking only on the outside, draw a sigh of relief—too soon. For too often such a person has not really experienced an inner change. He has not really given himself up, surrendered and dedicated his life to God. What he does is not out of conviction. There is no depth to his spiritual life. He does not think to go aside for personal prayer. He does not cherish a tender conscience and a daily walk with God. The Bible doesn’t interest him.

Do you know someone who needs a life transformation? It can be easy to give advice, to complain about that person, or to feel frustrated. Better is to pray and have hope. Pray not that the person settles down but rather that he or she settles up with God. God’s Spirit changes people from the inside out.

Dear heavenly Father, thank You for Your Spirit who renews thoughts and attitudes. Please, Lord, start with mine.