For starters my
backyard became my playground and I did creative runs back there doing multiple
kms… and then when the weather was incredibly nice, I opened up the pool. I know, crazy, right, but there I was on
March 20th making it happen two months earlier than normal.
More importantly, this
time was learning about salvation. For
me, it is discovering what Jesus has always longed for me to be set free from. The biblical definition of salvation is to be
saved by God from the consequences of our sin and it is brought about by faith
in Jesus and what He did for us on the cross.
It is the very reason we celebrate Easter or Good Friday and
Resurrection Sunday!
"He himself bore our sins" in his
body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness;
"by his wounds you have been healed."
1 Peter 2:24
During my time in
isolation, I took another step in discovering what it meant for salvation. I am learning to be delivered from
myself. It is a lesson I have learned
and I continue to learn. I am learning
in my union with Jesus to embrace Him more, to become so thrilled with all that
He is to me. It was also a time to of
learning to be delivered from work in that my work and completing another
roofing job can so easily define me.
Sharon also challenged me to take my Garmin watch off and be free from
the buzz notifications on my wrist. All
this to say that returning to that kind of simplicity to be still was actually
quite hard for me, in fact it was difficult.
I think it is so easy to be defined by all that we do instead of simply
knowing that we are loved by the Father’s embrace.
1 John 4:15 If anyone acknowledges that Jesus
is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. 16 And so we know and
rely on the love God has for us. God is
love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.
It takes an incredible
amount of effort to live this way and not just be easily swept away by everything
else around you. I’m learning that being
here is the place where it needs to start, the place where I need to discover
my purpose, my meaning and my direction for each and every day that he gives
me.
When I think of my salvation experience, I
think of being delivered from sin and gaining personal holiness. But salvation is so much more! It means that the Spirit of God has brought
me into intimate contact with the true Person of God Himself. And as I am caught up into total surrender to
God, I become thrilled with something infinitely greater than myself.
Oswald Chambers
I have also been forced during this time to really look deeper at my emotions and feelings thanks to the Junto Institute…see the image of the feelings wheel. I’m learning to uncover why I can get triggered, what are the root issues and letting the Holy Spirit work specifically where there is resentment, agitation, frustration etc…
It is remembering that
salvation is not only being saved from something it is also being saved to
someone. The Father is continually
leading me closer to Him, to His heart, to His will and there it is in the
Garden where Jesus prayed through all His pain, saying,
"Father, if you are willing, take this cup
from me; yet not my will, but yours be done." Luke 22:42
As we come to this
weekend, may we learn that His will, although not easy, and often difficult, is
the place where we will come to know His presence like no other.
