Heart Tracks - Sacred Steps

"Through Him you Gentiles are also being made part of the dwelling where God lives by His Spirit." Ephesians 2:22..."He indwells us to take us where we should go and lead us away from where we've been....."Perhaps we have forgotten that every step is sacred. Live with a sense of sacredness." Chris Tiegreen

"Fitbits" are the rage today. These are devices that count the number of steps one takes over the course of the day. Those that have them tend to be very diligent about their steps. Almost obsessively so. There's a lot of evidence to support that. I wonder, how much evidence is there as concerns our spiritual "steps?" How diligent are we about them? Tiegreen asks if we've forgotten that every step for a believer, a child of the King, is sacred. There's a lot of evidence to support that we have.

I was struck today by this Scripture and Tiegreen's quotes. Our lives are made up of steps. It's where our steps lead that make all the difference. Not long ago I wrote about our tendency to take "side-trips" in our journey with Him, and how easily we find it to do so. If we really treated our walk in Him as a sacred relationship and a sacred trust, could that ever be the case?

No matter who we are, our spiritual journey will be sure to contain numerous "roadside attractions." Some of them will seem quite harmless, indeed, would appear a very good thing. Yet we miss that while we respond to the good, we will always miss the best. When we live with a sense of the sacred, He who always leads us to His best, gives us the wisdom, discernment, and strength to never accept the good over it. In the same way, those other roadside diversions that make no pretense of being "good," but simply appeal to our fleshly lusts, lose all power to entice us and pull us from His way. Our sense of the sacred walk we have in and with Him keeps us focused on our journey that goes ever deeper into Him, and ever further from what and who we have been.

His Word says that the steps of a righteous man (and woman) are ordered by the Lord. They are, but it is so easy for us to get out of order. In a world that increasingly tells us that nothing is sacred, it gets ever easier to live as if that's true. Our steps may take us into a church sanctuary or a mid-week Bible study or prayer group once or twice a week, but they don't seem to take us into the depths of His heart.

Maybe the real problem is that we try so hard to "live up to" the example of Christ. We ask "What would Jesus do?" Tiegreen says that the better answer is, "What is Jesus doing?" And saying. He's not some example to be copied. He's a Living Lord living in those who are His. Empowering, speaking to, leading along. We don't have to try and follow Him. He walks in us, with us. And as we allow Him to fully do that, we come into the sense of the sacred that He calls us to. We don't want the good, we want the best. The roadside attractions no longer divert us. He's our attraction. Our steps won't go in the direction of the profane because we're drawn to the Holy, to the One who is Holy. We become ones who live an otherworldly life while being fully engaged in the world. And the steps we take lead us ever more deeply into the "exceedingly abundant life that is beyond all we could ask or think," spoken of by Paul in Ephesians.

Not everyone has the Fitbit sold in stores and online, but every one who is His has a spiritual one. More than the number of steps, it shows where our steps go. Physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and...verbally. It shows them all. Where will your Fitbit show your steps taking you today, tomorrow, this week? Do you walk with a sense of the sacred....or are you more drawn to the profane?

Blessings,
Pastor O