Day 15

I’m so grateful, Lord, that the Christian life is not a rigorous self-improvement course or a do it yourself kit…that it is not a call to prove myself or improve myself by overcoming my own shortcomings and failures, in my own way, by my own resources. Thank You that, instead, You are at work in me and in my situation to break old patterns of thought and action, to create within me both the desire and the power to do Your gracious will…and to make me a joy to You in new ways.

I praise You that “Jesus Christ is able to untangle all the snarls in my soul, to banish all my complexes, and to transform even my fixed habit patterns, no matter how deeply they are etched in my subconscious” (Corrie ten Boom). Thank You for the many ways You use other people to counsel me and help me grow…and yet that Christ Himself is the Answer to my hang-ups, the one Source who can meet my deepest needs. How I rejoice that He is wonderful in counsel and mighty in power, and that He heals from the inside out.

Thank You, too, for the Holy Spirit—the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and strength. I praise You that He is in me to enlighten me through Your Word, to flush away my anxieties and fears, my resentments and hostilities, my guilt and regrets, as water flushes away dirt and trash…to keep me filled with Himself and to flood my heart with Your love…to produce through me the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control…and to enable me to give thanks for all things as the hours and days and weeks pass. I rejoice that You are able to do far more than all I ask or think, according to Your power that is at work within me—the same power that raised Jesus from the dead!