Walk in Him

"Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught abounding in thanksgiving. "
Colossians 2:6-7

These are a couple of verses that I believe God laid on my heart during this past week.When Paul writes, "as [we] received," he takes the focus off ourselves and puts it on God. Sometimes we can have a selfish outlook on life, feeling as if we had a part in calling God to ourselves or finding him(as alot of songs like to declare). God was the one that gave us the ability and opportunity to receive His precious gift. God was the one who sent His perfect son to die for us on the cross. We need to focus on being the receiver of faith instead of the finder of faith.

Paul then follows this statement by telling us to, "walk in him", Him being Jesus Christ. He urges us to walk in Christ as we received Christ, wholly dependent on His unchanging Grace. Earlier as Paul was starting off his letter Paul prays that the colossian church would "be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding" (1:9).

If we connect this with our walk in Christ Jesus, then, in praying for His will in our life, we are completely trusting in his Sovereign Grace to save AND guide us in our walk, following this declaration to walk in all dependency. Paul says we must be "rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught." I thought it interesting that he used past tense verbs. This past sense seems to imply that before our walk with Christ even begins, or at the start, we must be established in faith. I believe this shows how important being in a church and constantly learning from the elders is in our lives.

Paul then ends these two verses by imploring us to be "abounding in thanksgiving." God does not want us to be prideful and arrogant about our salvation, he wants us to be abounding in thanksgiving for His Son's sacrifice. In Ephesians God calls us to "[give] thanks always and for everything." In addition He wants us not only to be thankful for everything, but always. Everything that the Lord does in our lives he wants us to be thankful for. Good or bad.

After we have realized the gift of salvation through Jesus's death, we can do nothing but build up the faith he has given us, and then give thanks for it. A song from the the Valley of Vision cd says

"Jesus, our great Savior,

Lord of Heaven,

Son of God.

Only Jesus."

-Nathan Edwards-