Celebrating the Journey
This past week, as a country, we celebrated 250 years since the first signing of the Declaration of Independence.
The Declaration of Independence was the moment that the leaders of the country made a public and final declaration of their freedom from the rule of the King of England. This declaration of freedom was just the first step in obtaining their freedom. They still had a war to win.
This reminded me about the similarities to our journey with God. The moment we accept the gift of forgiveness from God is like our declaration of justification. It is the moment that the relationship with God is restored and our eternal destiny is firmly established. But, this is not the end of the journey. It is only the beginning.
Just like the people of the new country had to fight to remove the British army that had been entrenched for decades, we need to work with God to put to death our old corrupted identity, so we can live freely out of the new identity He has for us.
As we go through this month, we want to celebrate our declaration of freedom from sin, but we also want to recommit ourselves to the journey of transformation with God that is still before us.