You are beginning a new spiritual adventure. At first, this new way of living may be accompanied by strong emotions and by a deeply personal relationship with an interior presence. Even the selection of a companion focuses on your individual relationship with me.

As you continue this adventure, you will begin to experience a gradual transformation in your being. You will be more aware of my presence in all things. You will find yourself thinking about me through the day, you will experience me in the persons that come into your life; you will feel me in the changes of nature; you will have greater and greater joy in my presence.

You will recognized that you are functioning from a new center, a center with divine depth. Sometimes you will not know how to pray, but the Spirit will pray through you with sighs too deep for words.

As you live in my presence, you will become aware of a deeper feeling of compassion. When you read the headlines of the newspaper, the earthquake in South American will evoke you concern; the threat of war in the Middle East will call forth your prayer; the report of deaths on the highway will evoke sadness for the families of those who have been killed or injured. Life will change for you because you are beginning to look at the world from a different perspective.

– Ben Johnson, I Stand at the Door, CTS Press, 1986, 17-18.

¹⁰ Therefore, test everything to see what’s pleasing to the Lord, ¹¹ and don’t participate in the unfruitful actions of darkness. Instead, you should reveal the truth about them. ¹² It’s embarrassing to even talk about what certain persons do in secret. ¹³ But everything exposed to the light is revealed by the light. ¹⁴ Everything that is revealed by the light is light. Therefore, it says, Wake up, sleeper! Get up from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.

Ephesians 5:10-14

We are just a few days from the New Year, a time when our whole culture has us thinking and reflecting about transformation of one kind or another.  Christ longs for us to live from a place of wholeness – emotional, spiritual, and physical health and strength.  As you prepare for this New Year, imagine what a shift in your spiritual life would mean for you and the ones you love.  Continue to invite Christ in – asking him to transform you from the inside out.

Gracious God,
Help me wake up to the life you have for me.
I long to live a life that is balanced, authentic, and purposeful.
I am learning that you must be at the center of my life,
if I am to experience such wholeness.
So, encourage and inspire me Lord,
as I seek to invite you in.
Send your Spirit,
to move in and through me,
to take up residence within me,
so that my life might be lived
for you
for the life of this world.
Amen