Day 9 of 31: "In Him"

Do you have that crazy practice of asking God to give you a word for the year? I wasn't quite ready for mine for 2017: MOVE. Move what, you say? Exactly! Move what? Move where? How? When? The question that was supposed to bring clarity created more questions. I decided to look in scripture for where the word "move" was used. (https://www.blueletterbible.org is my jam!)

The first verse that popped up was Acts 17:28 "In Him we live, move, and have our being." What does it really mean to be in Christ/Him- yes more questions. I can be in my house, in a bad mood, in a predicament, aka in a pickle, but "in Christ"? I thought he was in us?

With a little more looking I found out "In Christ", there is: no condemnation (Romans 8:1), in Christ there is the love of God (Romans 8:39), grace given (I Corinth 1:4) and freedom. (Galatians 2:4) The picture of the Exodus from Day 8 came back to mind. God stands between us and our past so there is no condemnation. With love on one side and grace on the other we move toward the freedom before us on the dry ground/bridge of the cross.

As we continue our #adifferentmarch, we've descended into the valley part of the journey. We've left the baggage behind, so put on your traveling "in Christ" clothes. We're headed to the wilderness!

Reflection: Have you really accepted God's salvation that allows you to be "in Christ" or are you stuck in the middle of the Red Sea? Do you feel stranded or abandoned by God?

Prayer: Father, Open my eyes, Lord so that I may see your salvation. Open my eyes so that I can see that I am clothed "in Christ"- fully loved, fully forgiven, fully free.

Picture collage created by the lovely, talented and spirit-filled, Karen Shogren.  Thank you for the gift of your creativity and friendship.