Growing

They've caught the fever: fairy garden fever. The golden heads each want their own and the dollar signs rack up in my mind. How many plants at $4 a piece? For a fairy garden? You can't even eat that! One of the little branches of a minature $4 plant cracks off and I'm wondering if I can sprout that branch and grow another mini plant. It works with most house plants, why not this one? So for about three weeks, I've been nurturing this little stub of a plant, giving it just enough water every day to keep the bottom immersed. Today, I got sick of that little stub and plastic cup in my window sill and tossed it out.
How often do I get frustrated in pursing the fruits of God's presence in my life and just throw those out: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control? (Yes, I'm typically tossing self-control and patience out with the trash.) Yet these are evidence of God's residence in my life. Further, I'm suppose to be done with the impatience, anxiety, harshness and living for self-pleasure.

We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin. Romans 6:6-7

If I am promised my old ungodly habits have no more power over me, why is it so hard? Why do I have to wait? It seems that when I came to true saving faith and trust in Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, the old habits and patterns should have almost instantly vaporized. Like making a bag of microwave popcorn: wait 2 minutes on high power and ding: popcorn's ready. I want ding: no more struggles with sin.
In his book, Pursuit of Holiness, Jerry Bridges explains holiness as a growing process that takes time and I must choose to be committed. I must repeatedly choose to

1. Renew my mind (Romans 12:2)
2. Set my affections on things above (Colossians 3:1)
3. Submit my will to God (James 4:7) (I like to think of this as choosing God's way in all I think say and do.)

As I feel the desire to act according to my old unhealthy habits, I can be saying these Scriptures aloud. Some additional concepts Bridges teaches are also helpful for me.

• God most often appeals to my will by reason.
• Satan most often appeals to my desires.
• Satan attacks my reason and confuses an issue.

I've seen this happen just this week. It was Sunday night, and I had too much for dinner; my stomach was full. But with the kids in bed and knowing "Monday Monday" was around the corner, I began to desire the last bowl of popcorn sitting in the corner of the room. Oh, wouldn't that taste so great? And it's just a little bowl. Oh, and I can sprinkle nuts and M&Ms on top. I deserve it! Tomorrow is Monday. Sitting there I realized, this is Satan appealing to my emotions, my lust for food, and trying to cloud my reason. If I would listen to reason (God's typical method), I'd hear. Hey listen, your stomach is so full it still hurts from dinner. The popcorn will be there tomorrow. 
Another helpful arrow in my armor I heard this week is to envision God's glory in the midst of attack. In my mind, begin to imagine heaven and it's perfection and wonderfulness and think, I want to be there! And even though this struggle with sin and temptation is hard, I want that more.
The truth is sometimes I win this battle in my mind and sometimes I don't. No, it's not like the bag of microwave popcorn, but more like that little fairy plant that takes weeks and weeks to sprout new roots. This process will be on-going until the day I meet Jesus face to face. It's part of my journey. But I don't do it alone.

Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it. 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24

He provides the power within me, in the Holy Spirit to make choices, daily, hourly choices that look like Jesus. I can expect growth as I make wise godly choices. So, like the cabbage and cucumbers that I haven't given up on, I'll be growing.

Nestled

Touch is not my love language. But even still, I do love the comfort and acceptance I feel when someone I trust wraps arms around me and I feel nestled in their authentic, heart-felt embrace.

From now on, [because we no longer live for ourselves, but for God who is in our hearts], we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold the new has come. 2 Thessalonians 5:16-17

In Christ, I am a new creation. Parallel this idea with the concentric measuring cups pictured above. I am like a new cup, nestled in His embrace. When I came to belief in Him, He tossed out my old dirty cup, replaced it with a new righteous cup (Philippians 3:9), that nestles tightly inside Him, Jesus, who sits right inside God--like concentric measuring cups.
What kills me is that even though I got a new cup, I still sin because of the imperfect world I live in. However, "we regard no one according to the flesh" tells me that I can't look at my sin because He cut away that rotting putrid flesh. This is the old that has passed away. Men used to literally see Jesus'  broken, bruised and bleeding human body, but He died and was resurrected with a new, perfect form. That's the future to which I'm compelled to look: my resurrected body (1 Corinthians 15:42-53). Is this what it means to throw off the sin that entangles?

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us… Hebrews 12:1

To not focus on my sin that bogs me down, rather choosing to focus on my righteousness from Him (2 Corinthians 5:21).
I have a friend who just lost 20 pounds and she posted a picture of a 20-pound barbell on Facebook, commenting she was glad to be rid of it; it was heavy! What if she spent her days starring at the 20-pound barbell, wondering how she managed to gain and then lose that 20 pounds? She'd be stuck in the past instead of propelling herself forward.
I need to look to where God calls me forward and feel the comforting embrace of Christ nestled all around me. Yes, I've messed up in the past. But I am new and righteous. In light of eternity, my present state and circumstance don't matter, they will be cut off and replaced with complete holiness.
Picture yourself nestled in Christ. Keep your head up and focus on Christ. See who He made the new you to be, not your sin and past mistakes.

Life

In my hiker opinion, there's a difference between just strolling along a path you see from the highway and getting out the map, consciously choosing a destination and then planning the trail route. In both instances, you might see some pretty neat things, but likely the routed path will yield more spectacular views. But the extra work of planning the excursion is a choice.
Rewind four-thousand years to Moses leading Israel through the desert recorded in Deuteronomy 30.

15 “Now listen! Today I am giving you a choice between life and death, between prosperity and disaster. 16 For I command you this day to love the Lord your God and to keep his commands, decrees, and regulations by walking in his ways. If you do this, you will live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you and the land you are about to enter and occupy.17 “But if your heart turns away and you refuse to listen, and if you are drawn away to serve and worship other gods,18 then I warn you now that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live a long, good life in the land you are crossing the Jordan to occupy.19 “Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live! 20 You can make this choice by loving the Lord your God, obeying him, and committing yourself firmly to him. This is the key to your life. And if you love and obey the Lord, you will live long in the land the Lord swore to give your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”

Israel had a choice on the quality of their life. It was irrevocable that they were a people chosen and called by God (Deuteronomy 7:6-9) and they were undoubtedly in His flock, but the quality of their life was determined by their choice: life and prosperity or death and disaster.
We have the same choice. When we choose to believe in the work of Jesus paying the penalty of my sin on the cross, we are choosing to accept eternal life and enter into His flock. After that initial choice, comes the daily choice: to love my LORD, follow His ways in all I think, say and do, and hold fast to Him (verse 20).
This is the key to living a full, meaningful, rich life because He is my life. After our initial choice to accept eternal life, our old life is buried, dead and gone (Galatians 2:20). He is my length of days. The quality of my today depends on my choice to love, follow and hold onto Jesus. This is the difference between living a ho-hum life as a believer (a pitiful existence) and living with purpose and joy. Some people say choose your attitude, I say choose LIFE!
Deliberately choose a trail on the map, don't just mosey on down whatever path is laid before you because that path will not be satisfying! To not consciously choose is to choose the unsatifsying life.
Every day when you come before God, picture Him like Moses before Israel, asking you, "Will you choose good or evil?" And just like Moses pleaded with Israel, He pleads with you to choose life.
Will you consciously choose life today: to love God, follow His ways and hold onto Him as your surety?

Cling

I can't seem to get it from my mind: cling. When Joshua gave the Israelites their last charge in Joshua 23, CLING to the Lord was in his directives.

Be strong to keep and do all that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, turning aside from it neither to the right hand nor to the left…but you shall cling to the LORD your God just as you have done to this day. Joshua 23:6, 8

This Hebrew word literally means to be glued. It may be translated, to be attached to God as if you were glued to Him. A couple word pictures come to mind. The new couple: they can't do anything apart from each other, they hold hands constantly, hold hands, they are consumed with each other. A hungry baby longing for the milk he needs for his very life. Do I hold fast to God and His Word in the same way?
How do we cling to the Lord? What actions do we need to take?

• Read God's Word
• Study God's Word
• Meditate on God's Word
• Memorize God's Word
• Listen for His sell small voice
• Apply God's Word to my life

Every morning, God reminds me, peering out my window, a few last maple leaves, clinging to their source branches. He echoes, "Cling to me, child. That last leaf will fade away, but you can cling. I am strong enough to hold onto you through all seasons."
Interestingly, it seems like we'll cling to something be it an idol, thorn in our life or the one true God. Joshua uses the same word just three verses later to describe the Israelite's alternative option: cling to the remaining Canaanites and their gods.

Be very careful, therefore, to love the LORD your God. For if you turn back and cling to the remnant of these nations remaining among you…know for certain that the LORD your God will no longer drive out these nations before you… Joshua 23:11-13.

It's absurd that we might choose to cling to anything but Him. It is so obvious, any choice but Him leaves us powerless and alone. But I do. I cling to food. I cling to productivity. I cling to entertainment. I cling to the disrespectful behavior of a golden head. I cling to selfish desires. When I revert to the ways and thinking of my old self that is corrupted by deceitful desires, I beg God remind me to put on the new self that is being renewed day by day (Ephesians 4:22-24.)
Peering out toward the pond, the silhouette of two remaining ducks capture my thoughts. They waddle on the thin sheet of ice that lay just under the water's surface. Then they sit in the icy water. Stand, sit, stand, sit they repeat. I'm reminded of Peter, walking on water when he kept his eyes on Jesus rather than the tretrorous waters (Matthew 14:28-30). I could cling to Him and walk on water in the midst of my trials with the calculating one, or I could let my mind cling to the current struggle and sit its icy cold waters. There are always two options.
When the calculating one has pushed all my buttons and I begin to scream, but Jesus' name forms on my lips and I rest in Him for that moment...This is clinging to the Lord.
Examine your mind, soul and emotions and answer the question, "What am I clinging to?" If you are not clinging to the LORD, what steps will you take to claim the new eternal life given to believers?

Who needs fifteen?

Countless times recited to the golden heads, is Alexander and the Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day by Judy Viorst. It recounts the awful day of a grade school boy. At school, we complains of his teacher, "At singing time, she said I sang too loud. At counting time, she said I left out sixteen. Who needs sixteen?" Our days at preschool have also been a chuckle as the boisterous one has developed a habit of leaving out fifteen. "Thirteen, fourteen, sixteen..." Who needs fifteen? 
Bad habits are both difficult to break and easy to revert. The best thing to do is run away from circumstance that which tempts us. Like the fudge sauce staring me in the face last night; I should have run away! I know that I can claim the power available to me. How do I know this?

His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature,having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. 2 Peter 1:3-4 

The greek word for power is where we get the english word for dynamite. This dynamite power of Christ's is mine for the claiming when I know Him. And how do I know Him? Relationship. Investing time developing real relationship with Him. As we develop a deeper relationship with God, we attain all we need for life and godliness. And along the way, we discover His great and precious promises. According to one person's count, there are 3573 promises in the Bible. Applying and living by the promises He gives us, we become more like Him. 
Understand that this relationship with Him isn't a microwave relationship. It's a crockpot. It takes time. One promise is that He gives us new life (2 Corinthians 5:17.) This is how I know that I can change my old habits. And how I know that when I go on auto-pilot and revert to old habits (yelling at the goldenheads, judging the engineer, eating fudge sauce by the spoonful), I know that the crockpot came unplugged.
I don't want to spend my life wallowing in a jar of fudge sauce. I want to become more like Christ. I need to stay plugged in, developing relationship over time. I need to simmer the crockpot. I may not really need fifteen, but I do need to be more like Christ.
What are you doing today to develop your relationship with Christ? Second Peter encourages us in verse 5 to start with faith, then add virtue, then knowledge, then self-control, then endurance, then godliness, then affection and finally love. If this is a progression in our relationship with Christ, where are you and what can you do to simmer the crockpot?