This is your instruction: ⁶You received Christ Jesus, the Master; now live him.

We must stop living like children of God only now and then. We must start being serious about how God intends his children to live. We must intentionally break with the way the world lives. Yes, we really want to live the way God intends, but before we know it, we get sucked in by the world and start living like worldly people.

Why is it so difficult? Why is a continuous struggle to live in the world the way Jesus wants us to?

The major reason why we are unable to live according to Jesus’ way of doing things surely is because we do not put enough effort into our relationship with Him. We do not spend enough time with God in our busy days. If we want to act like Jesus in our everyday lives, we must firstly know how to act. The only one who can teach us that is Jesus Himself. If we have an intimate relationship with Jesus, He can teach us the right way of doing things and how we can do that n our everyday existence.

Paul suggests the following: ⁷You’re deeply rooted in him. You’re well constructed upon him. You know your way around the faith. Now do what you’ve been taught. School’s out; quit studying the subject and start living it! And let your living spill over into thanksgiving.

The whys and wherefores will start disappearing when we start having an intimate relationship with God, because it is in an intimate relationship with Jesus that you will actually learn what is God’s will for your life. Indeed, this is where you learn how to act in every situation you may encounter during the day. Through your actions in every situation, no matter how difficult, people will see God. People will be so amazed that will long to be like that too. Remember Mother Theresa – so many people were changed through her way of doing things.

Our relationship with Jesus must be as strong as a tree anchored in the earth. The winds may blow, the storms may rage, but the tree stands strong, because its roots anchor it firmly in the soil. But even the idea of trees being anchored firmly in the soil is problematic, because you see some time ago we had these strong winds blowing in our town. Nearly a 100 trees on the golf course were uprooted. These enormous trees lay flat on the grass.

How can Paul compare our relationship to trees anchored like this? And then I remembered someone had said: These trees on the golf course have it too easy. They have easy access to water and their roots don’t have to look very deep for water. So the roots are shallow and when the wind blow like this once every10 years, the roots are not deep enough to support the heavy branches and leaves and they fall over.

Do you hear this? In an intimate relationship with Jesus our roots grow deep, so that we can remain standing when strong winds blow all around us. It’s not always moonshine and roses. We may struggle even if we are in an intimate relationship with Jesus, but it is actually in these times of struggle that our roots grow deeper in Jesus, where we are looking for more. That gives the stability that we need to remain upright.

May I ask you to intentionally, every moment of today and tomorrow, long for an intimate relationship with Him?

Scripture

Colossians 2:6-8

Reflection

How stable is your tree?

Have you been blown over?

How intimate is your relationship with God?

Prayer

O Lord, I know I have to spend more time with You, but life often intrudes. Please help met to live a more disciplined life and to spend more than enough time in Your presence. Amen.