The benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. (Rom. 6:22)
C. S. LEWIS STATES in Mere Christianity, “Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of—throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it himself.”
In allowing God into our lives, we give Him free rein to do what He pleases. When this happens, we can expect Him to do His work in us, refining and making us complete. Through all of these transformative experiences, we will embrace His grace and love, rather than, as Paul put it, live unholy lives of bondage and shame. Because of this eternal gift from God, we are no longer the master of our lives, but now follow Christ.
Out loud, thank God for His love and provision in your life.
Jeremy Summers is ministry director at 12Stone Church in Lawrenceville, GA and coauthor of Awakening Grace and Paradox (WPH).
