Paul, a liberated prisoner of the Lord, begged the church at Ephesus “to walk in a manner worthy of the calling.” We are the Father’s representatives on earth and our calling is to represent Him well. As you strive to live a vibrant life or an abundant life, you become more certain of His calling and choosing of you.
Whitaker House
Day 1
Scripture: Colossians 3:12-17
I believe that deeply nestled inside of a person’s tender heart is the sweet desire to simply be chosen by someone. In the third grade, we long to be chosen for the kickball team. In the fifth grade, we long to be chosen to be someone’s best friend. In high school, how we long to be chosen as someone’s prom date! As we grow older, we long to be chosen for other things, such as a scholarship, a job, or marriage.
Regardless of who else has rejected you, rest assured that you have been chosen by the One who loves you most and knows you best! God has chosen you as His very own child and intimate friend.
The Father has chosen you specifically at this time in history to be on His team and to be embraced by His love. He has chosen you to dance through life with Him; He has chosen you to be the object of His blessing and favor. You, my friend, have been chosen by the One who matters the very most.
Knowing that you have been chosen by the Father changes everything for you. It transforms your identity and magnifies your purpose. Every morning when you awake, the first thought that crosses your foggy brain should be, I have been chosen by the Father! As you stumble to the bathroom to brush your teeth, the first audible expression that passes those pearly whites should be, “I have been chosen by the Father!”
He wanted you for His very own and so He chose you before the beginning of time.
Not only did the Father choose you, but He also named you. Your past doesn’t have the right to name you, nor do your failures have the power to identify you. The only one who holds your naming rights is the One who loves you enough to choose you for His very own.
God’s love is not conditional upon your behavior; it is the essence of His character. You are unable to obstruct God’s love for you, to minimize His love for you, or to choke out His love for you.
You are chosen. You are holy. You are dearly loved.
Day 2
Scripture: 1 John 4:19-20
You will never live a vibrant life or an abundant life if you are still struggling with the command to love the people whom God has placed in your life.
When I encourage you to love people with the love that Christ has placed in you, my oversized umbrella covers difficult people, dysfunctional people, different people, obnoxious people, and unrepentant sinners. However, love is often tough and always calls people higher to Christlike behavior.
The sad truth is that some people are just harder to love than others, aren’t they? If you haven’t had to stretch your muscle of love in order to love a difficult person, then you don’t know what love really is! I remind myself often that I was the difficult person who the Father chose to love … and miracle of miracles, He continues to do so! He loves me at my worst and never lets go! He loved me even when I was in my mess and the love continues.
Christianity begins and ends on our love for God and our love for others. It has always been and it will always be about love. The depth of our love for God is always reflected in the way we treat others. The love that we show to others is birthed out of the love that God has lavishly, unconditionally, and unselfishly showered on us. We are a people who are so filled to overflowing with the love of God that love is the only possible response that we can have. God loves me completely and irrevocably; His love for me is not based upon performance or upon response to Him. Because I am the clay pot that has been caught in a downpour of the love of the Father, I have no choice but to allow that love to splash all over you!
Love is the starting point, the pivot point, and the goal for those of us who choose to walk in the Light of Christ. We can discern whether a man or a woman is walking in the Light of Christ by this one telltale aspect of his or her life. It is not possible to say that we hate someone and declare in the same breath that we love God. You can’t have one without the other. Loving people and loving God are undividable.
Day 3
Scripture: Ephesians 4:1-3
It’s difficult for me to imagine the murderer that Paul was before he met Christ on the road to Damascus. Known as Saul prior to that conversion experience, he persecuted the disciples of Jesus and threw them into prison. The Bible recounts the fact that the very reason Paul lived, at one point was to kill another Christian. The very air that he breathed fueled his hatred against those who believed in the resurrected Christ. Paul knew that if he could change due to the power of Christ, then anyone could change!
As a prisoner in Rome, Paul wrote his letter of encouragement specifically to the Ephesians. Paul chose to rise above his human chains and determined to be chained to a more powerful and real prison than any earthly confinement. Paul lived in a prison of absolute freedom!
Paul knew that although the Roman prison might have the power to impede his earthly movement, in being chained to Christ Jesus, he was set free to be the person who he was eternally called to be. Paul experienced more freedom in prison than he had when walking the streets of Rome or Jerusalem. Paul lived for the prison of serving Christ wholeheartedly all the days of his life.
Paul was assured of one overriding blessing from living a Christian life: if you are free in Christ, there is no prison that can hold you back from your destiny!
This is a conundrum, isn’t it? What a lovely and hopeful contradiction in terms! My prison frees me to serve Christ with my whole heart.
Our chief goal this side of heaven should be to live our lives in a way that honors the Father. Paul and the Holy Spirit are pleading with believers to order our days in a way that brings glory to God. We are urged to treat people in such an encouraging manner that it makes the Father’s heart happy. Every word that we speak should be a word of kindness and compassion to those in our lives.
We are the Father’s representatives on earth and our calling is to represent Him well. We are His ambassadors of hope, joy, and love. People are watching our lives to see Christ in us, the hope of glory.
Day. 4
Scripture: Romans 12:18
There are many things in life that are not accidents, nor are they certainties. Unity is one of those blessings in life that requires hard work and discipline. It doesn’t just happen in a home, in a marriage, in an office, or in the church. Someone must make unity a high priority in order to achieve its status.
Unity and peace will always take your family, your marriage, your office, and your church in an upward direction. Unity and peace will always ensure that your life is continually traveling along the high roads of faith. Unity and peace create an invisible structure that will allow you to live, even with difficult people, in a manner that honors Christ.
In the moments when you have diligently guarded peace and even fought for peace but it just seems impossible, the most important goal is for you to have peace in your own heart. It is of vital importance that you are walking in forgiveness and blessing even when the other person continues to be argumentative or antagonistic. You can walk away knowing that you tried your hardest to seek peace and still be kind to the other person involved in the challenging relationship.
If you truly long to live a vibrant life that is filled with joy and hope, then you must diligently fight for peace, but also realize that you need peace within your heart as well.
Peace is worth fighting for, it is worth forgiving for, and it is worth blessing the other person in spite of differences. What a wonderful way to approach difficult relationships! When peace is the goal and when the route is paved with forgiveness and blessing, the fulfillment will be unmatched. Peace is only truly experienced in human relationships when intimacy with Christ is valued and when we are surrendered to His ultimate and loving control.
The unalterable truth is that it is impossible to control everything that happens to you and it is futile to try to control the people in your life. The only thing that you can absolutely control is your response to painful situations and problematic people. Your power is found in your response; your peace is discovered when you respond the way that Jesus would.
Day 5
Scripture: Ephesians 5:1-2
The call to live a vibrant life is not, at its core, about what you choose to do, but rather it is about who you choose to be. You are called to be like God. When someone imitates God, it is as much about duplicating His actions as it is about disciplining their heart to match His loving and kind heart.
It is impossible for a person to imitate someone whom they have never observed. In order for you to imitate the Father, you must observe Him, and the way that you are able to do that is by reading your Bible. If you want to know the heart of God, read the Word.
As the Lord’s dearly loved children, we are the recipients of His kindness, grace, and mercy; as those who have been instructed to imitate Him, we should also be the vehicles through which His kindness, grace, and mercy flow. We should be splashing kindness on people like it’s free…because it is! We should be running over with grace like it is abundant…because it is! We should be throwing around love like it is easy…because it is! And we should be slow to anger because we learned that from our Dad. The same Father who is slow to grow angry at your shortcomings will give you His emotional DNA to enable you to be slow to anger as well. What a wonderful life we are called to drench ourselves in!
You are so unconditionally and thoroughly loved by the One who fathered you that He could think of no better or more appropriate name than the precious identity of Beloved, which in Greek is agapetos. The root of this word is agape, which describes the love of God toward His children. Agape is an unconditional, thorough, complete, and enthusiastic love from the Father that blankets us with His character. Agapetos, which is your God-given name, means “beloved, esteemed, dear, favorite, worthy of love.”
I hope that starting today, you will wear your name, Beloved, with honor and joy. I hope that you will declare your name out loud when the enemy tries to rename you with a lie. My prayer is that you will know who you are and you will know the God whom you are imitating.