Writings of a Beholder 🌿 1.12.23

Learning to Walk by the Spirit

These words from Galatians 5:25 have been living inside my mind ever since New Year’s Eve morning. As the Pastor preached, I felt the nudge of a holy invitation gently unfolding with every word he spoke.

 ^“If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.” (CSB)

As with any invitation, many questions came, but one still lingers in my head and heart today.

What does it mean to walk in step with the Spirit of God?

It’s a question I still don’t have a fully formed answer to, just pieces of things whispered within weary moments where time stills and I’m made keenly aware of my humanness. The tension of broken down bodies, a stained world, and the mystery that the kingdom of God is in our midst despite all of it.

I think I’m learning in these first few weeks of January what walking in the Spirit is not. Walking in the Spirit is not striving, producing, or proving. It’s not meant to feel ill-fitting or heavy. Walking in step with the Spirit of God is not filled with shame or fear or the terrible burden of self-loathing.

When thinking about what walking in step with God is not, it’s easier for me to name what it is. And when I think about walking in the Spirit I hear one very simple, clear invitation: Abide.

“Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me… As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love.” (John 15:4, 9 ESV)

And right there it says plainly that to abide in Jesus is to abide in Love — you cannot abide without being covered by it. So walking in the Spirit, remaining in step with Him, means receiving Love. It means receiving ourselves as God receives us: Loved. What if that means that the first step toward true and deep abiding — learning to walk in the Spirit — is learning how to receive God’s love for us?

What a simple concept, letting ourselves be loved by God. But how difficult it is to believe and live like we’re loved, isn’t it?

I sat with a small group of people on Wednesday afternoon in one of our Pastor’s offices at our church where we had a rich discussion on prayer. We examined Luke 11:1-13 and unpacked how Jesus prayed, why He taught others to pray that way, and why we think prayer is so important based on Jesus’ teaching.

What stood out the most to me from this passage of Scripture was how Jesus instructed us to pray.

He was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John also taught his disciples.”

He said to them, “Whenever you pray, say,

Father,
your name be honored as holy. (Luke 11:1-2, CSB, emphasis added)

When teaching the disciples to pray, the first word out of His mouth when addressing God is ‘Father’. With one word, one Name, Jesus invites us to step behind the veil that separates us from God and enter into intimacy with our Creator. He doesn’t instruct us to address Him as King or Lord or even Adonai, but Father — Abba.

Maybe that’s it, right there — that life is all about responding to Love’s invitation by constantly stepping behind that veil again and again without fear or trepidation.

Scripture over and over again points to this kind of Love — this kind of deep and utter closeness with our Lord Who calls Himself our Father. Who invites us to abide in Him and trust that He really is our Abba — more than capable of filling the God-sized hole inside of our chests that constantly cries out to be known, loved, seen, and understood.

We all want to belong, don’t we? To be told that who we are is enough and that the striving and all the extra isn’t needed, isn’t necessary, because we’re loved as we are, right where we are.

I think letting God — our Abba — meet us in that needy, lonely place is the first step to walking in His Spirit. Because how can we abide in Someone if we don’t believe how deeply we are loved? What’s the point then, to all of it?

These thoughts are still being formed in me, these truths being refined and shaped. But I felt the need to remind myself and maybe you, too, today that we are loved and the point of prayer and walking with God and abiding and all of life is learning how to live within the identity of that Love. It’s a lifelong journey, I think, and we probably won’t completely master it this side of heaven.

But I’m willing to put one foot in front of the other, learning how to love God more and learning how to look at Him and see everything I am rather than everything I’m not. To write these words on my heart and soul until they become a part of my whole being,

“For he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless in love before him.” (Ephesians 1:4, CSB)

With you on the journey,

Celia

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Life Lately

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A Breath Prayer for Your Weekend

Inhale: We love.

Exhale: Because You first loved us.

(adapted from 1 John 4:19)

*If you’d like to learn more about the practice of breath prayer, download this complete digital guide to practicing breath prayer.

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Resources & Good Things to Pick Up

My husband and I have been reading a book together and while it’s different in style from a lot of books I’ve read, I’m very much enjoying the raw truth of it. Check it out here: Learning Humility: A Year of Searching for a Vanishing Virtue by Richard J. Foster

I’m subscribed to receive Father Richard Rohr’s daily meditations, and this one in particular really hit home with me recently: Strength in Weakness

My Etsy shop, The Beholding Co., offers contemplative resources to help you slow down, seek still moments, and behold God’s presence with you in the everyday. Purchase some breath prayer cards, a Lectio Divina bookmark, and more.

Grab a copy of my Bible study, You Are Beloved: a 21-day study on how to root your identity in the love of God, over on Amazon. If you’d like a free 3-day sample of the study, reply to this email and I’ll send it right over!

My friend and licensed spiritual director, Kari Bartkus, offers an 8-week journaling program for those who want to process their grief and trauma with God within the safety of blank journal pages. I’ve completed the program myself and can say confidently that it was incredibly impactful and healing: Journal Gently

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An Invitation to Pause & Reflect

A regular practice of reflection helps us recognize what’s going on beneath the surface of our souls so we can name it in the Lord’s presence. Because as we learn to name what we feel, what we need, and what we long for, we’re also learning to discern the Spirit’s sweet, gentle voice within our hearts and lives.

Take a few moments today or this weekend to journal or contemplate with the Holy Spirit the following question(s) or prompt(s):

• How do you respond to the truth of God loving you? How does it make you feel?

• Is receiving difficult or easy for you? Why?

• What do you think it means to walk by the Spirit of God?