Sometimes we think what we do doesn’t matter.

Sometimes we think what we think doesn’t matter.

Sometimes we think “small” compromises don’t matter.

Sometimes we think we can fall back on our tendencies as a woman or as a man, as a teen or a child and rationalize them away.

Sometimes we think we can’t do anything to change; sometimes we don’t want to.

But all of it matters.

To the God we serve first and foremost.

To the one and the ones we are closest to.

To our hearts.

To our minds.

To our souls.

It matters.

And to that end, the God who formed us has called us to delight in Him!

The God who formed us has told us to follow Him, not others. Any we follow apart from God is only insomuch as they “imitate Christ” and “follow Him.” (I Corinthians 11:1)

The God who formed us has told us to conform to His image not to the image of any other, including our old nature.

The God who formed us has told us to take our thoughts captive to Him through our eyes, our ears, our mind.

The God who formed us has told us He equips us to think differently and do differently from our “before redemption” nature, replete with our self-focused desires and ways of thinking.  

“His power has given us everything we need for life and godliness…” (2 Peter 1:3)  

Do we believe that?

Will we live it?

To do life according to His desires and so change our own is possible when we are in Christ and because we are in Christ.

To desire that change more as we “grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord our Savior, Jesus Christ” (I Peter 2:18) is a treasure we recognize as not of ourselves but as a gift of God who does the equipping for those who are His redeemed.

For His glory and our delight.

The awesome joy of being hidden in Christ matters.

Our faithfulness matters.

Our repentance as we grow in grace matters.

That our hearts are tender to the Lord, humble enough to hear His correction matters.

That our hearts are one with His and that from our surrender and in our growing we know His great love and true desire for us matters.

That we are knit together with others who also love Him and us in unity and transparency matters.

The God who formed us said it matters.

All of it.

“…to the praise of His glorious grace, with which He has blessed us in the Beloved.” Ephesians 1:6