Up And Alive

Earlier this month, I went to Spring Harvest – Where Christians from every denomination come together for five days to worship, praise and dig deeper into God’s Word. It has become something of an annual event for my family, equipping and re-centring ourselves in Christ. This year, the focus was on the book of Ephesians, which illustrates to us who Christ is and who Christ is in us.

One of the themes was ‘Look Up’ - How we should look up and place our focus on God, to place him at the centre of our lives. How many of us prioritise other things over God or ignore him instead of centring our lives around Him?  Jesus should be in everything we do. Yet how many of us spend hours aimlessly looking at our phones, looking at those around us or watching the latest Netflix series, to name but a few? We should look towards Jesus, placing him at the centre of our lives, including in our work places and homes. He knows us and we should allow His will over our lives. Therefore, be determined to look up and not down or around. Be intentional and consider what you focus upon or get distracted by. Then, think about how you worship, pray and read the Bible. Do you seek God? It's very easy to get distracted, yet looking towards God is so important. How can we grow and deepen our relationship with God? Things that can help us include taking walks in nature – looking at the world God created. It is so beautiful and complex, from a single grain of sand to the stars in the sky. We can listen to music that can draw us closer as we look up marvelling at the holiness of God. We can also dig deeper into scripture, by taking time to read the words that God has given us – don’t just skim over them, but think about their meaning and context. We can also spend time in conversation with God, not just speaking but listening as well. There are many other ways, but the important thing is that we look up from the busyness of life to our Lord and Saviour.

Another theme was ‘Wake Up’ – To who God is. We all have a wake up moment when we come to realise who God is and who we are. Think about that moment when God first revealed himself to you. We can be prone to forgetting the first time we came to know and fell in love with God. Yet this is the moment we are given an entirely new life. We were dead before our wake up moment, before we become followers of Christ. ‘But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions - it is by grace you have been saved. (Ephesians 2:4-5). We are made alive and given a new life by God’s grace. There is no work on our part involved. It is by Christ alone that we are given a new life.

This new life is one we shouldn’t squander. We can at times experience seasons where our faith becomes habitual rather than living a life worthy of the new life that has been given to us. Ephesians 5:14 says, ‘Wake up, sleeper rise from the dead and Christ will shine on you’. We should walk, talk and live our lives in a way that the transformative power of God over your life can be seen by those around you. Think about how your faith affects those around you, in your job, your family and neighbours. How far does your faith influence your decisions? We should all be living a life as children of light, reflecting God’s goodness.

We should be up and alive by Christ, with Christ and in Christ!