My daughter did not walk until she was about 14 months old. People kept telling me to stop carrying her everywhere. Truth was, I didn’t. I could put her on a blanket in a room, and she was perfectly content to stay there. At the nursery one day, I watched her through the window because she was my little peek into heaven, and I saw her point to a toy and grunt, and another baby went and brought it to her. Kid you not! The babies in her room would bring her toys!
She did eventually decided to learn to walk. I wish I could describe her walk to you but it defies description. When she was little, her right arm would swing widely back and forth as her chubby little legs toddled to the next location. As she grew, her walk was still very distinctive and her running!? Oh my word. The way she ran cracked me up. My sister says it looks like she is always running up hill even when she isn’t.
My daughter is very vertically challenged. She’s fun size. She’s short, but we can still spot her in a moving crowd because how distinctive her walk is.
Do you know anyone like this?
There is nothing ordinary about her walk. There’s also nothing ordinary about her.
A friend I graduated high school with has a teenage daughter who is a model. She goes to Asia, Europe and New York for jobs. She has a model walk. Have you ever seen a model walk the catwalk? It’s very unique. Personally, I could NOT do it.
This weekend there’s a group of women at the Girlfriend Getaway. If you didn’t get to make this one, I am so sorry. I pray you will make it a priority for the next one, but I’m going to be teaching on having an extraordinary walk.
You would think those who have two working legs and two working feet would all walk the same, and yet we don’t. Some walk on their heels. Some walk on the inside of their feet or outside of their feet. Some drag a foot due to injury or disability. Some have unique walks, and some have model walks. The same applies to our spiritual walk. Whatever you walk through in your spiritual life, shapes your spiritual walk.
There are three things that shape a Christian’s walk, and they are all connected.
1. LOVE – 1 Peter 1:22, “Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart.”
Obedience is conduct, how you behave. If your faith doesn’t produce obedience, then you don’t have true faith. Obeying the truth through the Spirit means the obedience produces change. Obeying leads to purification of your soul, so if you aren’t obeying God, what does that say about the condition of your heart?
Fruit of the Spirit is LOVE. There are some people you can only love if you are filled with the Spirit because they are hard to love, and yet we are called to love fervently with a pure heart.
I love 1 Peter 4:8, “Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers a multitude of sins.” The love we can have and give to others only covers the sin. Only Jesus, the Father and the Spirit has loved greater so as to actually remove the sin.
In Matthew 5:43-48, Jesus tells us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us because if we love those who love us, isn’t that what the unrighteous do? So if you love only as they love, are you doing anything extraordinary?
How you love tells others if your walk with God is extraordinary.
2. Forgive – Ephesians 4:32 And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you.
God doesn’t ask us if we want to forgive. We are told to forgive. It is a command because God forgave us in Christ.
You must choose to forgive.
Forgiveness doesn’t excuse the person who committed the wrong.
Forgiveness doesn’t mean reconciliation or restoration.
Forgiveness means trusting God to deal with the one who did the hurtful thing (Exodus 34:6-7).
Forgiveness doesn’t have to lead to foolishness by repeatedly submitting yourself in the same relationship over and over again to be hurt.
Forgiveness is ongoing. The deeper the wound the more frequently you have to forgive the offense.
Forgiveness is not easy, but there is freedom in forgiveness.
Failing to forgive means you are living in sin.
Failing to obey God and trust God with your pain will lead to living a life of victimization instead of a life of victory, resentment instead of restoration in God, depression instead of deep growth, and bitterness instead of betterment.
Is your walk ordinary or extraordinary?
3. BLESS – How do you know when you have forgiven someone? When you can bless them and mean it. Luke 6:27-28, Romans 12:20-21 and Proverbs 25:21-22.
Blessing them may mean you pray for their salvation and healing. Blessing them means you don’t rejoice when something bad happens to them. Blessing them may mean meeting a need.
When people look at your life, see the struggles and hurt you have walked through, do they identify your walk as ordinary, or do they see an extraordinary walk full of love, forgiveness and blessing others?