Renew Your Walk This New Year
New Year’s resolutions can be super exciting when imagining the difference your plans can make.
However, the truth of the matter is not nearly so exciting as your mind can make it appear.
Because what it takes to allow those plans to have its desired effects is consistency, diligence, focus and hard work.
There is no easy way around it.
A book I recently got, “Manners, Culture, and Dress” by Richard A Wells (published 1893) has a chapter called Self-Culture. I really appreciate the old-fashioned common sense throughout the entire book, and this chapter specifically contained some much-needed practical advice.
But usually young people are not willing to devote themselves to that process of slow, toilsome self-culture which is the price of great success. Could they soar to eminence on the lazy wings of genius the world would be filled with great men. But this can never be; for whatever aptitude for particular pursuits nature may donate to her favorites, to her particular children, she conducts none but the laborious and the studious to distinction.
Page 209, Manners, Culture, and Dress by Richard A. Wells
“Slow”,” toilsome”, “laborious”, and “studious” are words of work.
God has been teaching me what it means to live with these principles.
Faithfulness, trust, surrender, submission, joy, rest, obedience.
This is God’s design for us as women. Yes, even those of us who are unmarried or without homes of our own.
It can be easy to slip into a mindset that life (as a young woman) actually begins when you would get married and right now, I’m just waiting and I’ll just live life while I’m waiting.
I challenge that mindset.
I would like to suggest that life is not about waiting for the next big thing, whether dating or going to the mission field or whatever it is you think you’re waiting for.
Rather it’s about using this moment in your hand right now for the Kingdom of God, where God has put you, for His purposes, in His design.
This concept is not new.
To this time, or to you, I would venture.
Peter talks about it: “Let your beauty not be external- the braiding of hair and the wearing of gold or fine clothes- but the inner person of the heart, the lasting beauty of a gentle and tranquil spirit which is precious in God’s sight. For in the same way the holy women who hoped in God long ago adorned themselves by being subject to their husbands, like Sarah who obeyed Abraham, calling him lord. You become her children when you do what is good and have no fear in doing so.” (1 Peter 3:3-6)
Paul talks about it in Titus: “Older women likewise are to exhibit behavior fitting for those who are holy, not slandering, not slaves to excessive drinking, but teaching what is good. IN this way, they will train the younger women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be self-controlled, pure, fulfilling their duties at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, so that the message of God may not be discredited.” (Titus 2:3-5)
Paul writes about it in 1 Timothy: “Likewise, women, are to exercise the same self-restraint, modesty, and self-control. They are not to adorn themselves with braided hair and gold or pearls or expensive clothing, but with good deeds that reflect reverence for God whom they profess. A woman must learn quietly with all submissiveness.” (1 Timothy 2:9-11)
In thinking on these passages, I’ve realized how much the modern world has changed the way we view and live out our God-given longings for His design.
A few things that come to the top of my mind are feminism, the internet, fast food, social media, traveling, and Walmart.
That’s a lot to unpack but you’ll see what I mean in just a moment.
Feminism has changed the world. There is no doubt about that.
I could write an entire post on this topic, but there are two things I want to note about it here:
- How it has stolen women’s place.
- How it has stolen women’s peace.
These are things I’ve noticed in my own life.
In stealing women’s place, as a nurturer, a creator, a Home Maker, the world has stolen women’s peace as well. How? By telling them they are worthless if they live as they were designed to.
You can see for yourself in the abortion industry, in the fast-food industry, in the health industry, how the lack of value placed on children, on food, on bodies has damaged lives.
Instead of gardening, women are running to the grocery store.
Instead of staying home to care for and nurture their families and children, women are going into the workforce and letting other people do it.
Instead of knowing herbs and food as medicine, they have Tylenol, Advil, and prescription drugs.
It’s not leading to a good place.
Now, I’m not condemning anyone who uses the grocery store or Tylenol.
What I am saying is that those practices are not how God designed this world and our lives to be.
And when anything is out of God’s design, there are always consequences. Whether we recognize them as such or not.
It’s freeing when you realize what you were created to be.
I know this because I’ve experienced it in my own life, and I’ve seen it play out in Scripture time and time again.
We do live in a fallen world however, and that means life here is never going to be perfect.
We are caught in this conundrum of living in the desire for perfection.
Nowhere in this world will you find it.
Only when you shift your gaze heavenward does perfection, as Jesus Christ Himself, come into view.
A quote from Nancy Demoss Wolgemuth sums this thought up very well.
Look anywhere else to find perfection, and you will never find it. Look to any other person as a model of flawless loveliness, and you will inevitably be disappointed. Look to anything or anybody-your spouse, your home, your job, yourself-to provide unmitigated satisfaction, and while you may see a number of impressive, desirable qualities there, you’ll also see deficiencies that remind you they can never be everything you’ll ever need. But look to Jesus, and he will exceed your highest hopes. Look to Jesus, and He will surpass your expectations. Look to Jesus, and you will find yourself in the presence of utter perfection.
Nancy demoss Wolgemuth, Incomparable, Page 20
How about that.
Doesn’t that shift your perspective a bit?
It certainly did mine.
Somehow, to know that only Christ Himself is perfect, gives me freedom to walk in His grace, in my imperfection.
Grace wouldn’t be grace if we didn’t need a Savior.
But neither would it be if we didn’t walk in it.
Jesus Himself tells us, “The one who remains in Me-and I in him- bears much fruit, because apart from Me you can accomplish nothing... You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that remains, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give you.” (John 15:5,16)
It is only through the Holy Spirit and the redemption of Christ we are given the power to live diligent, obedient, submitted, faithful daily lives as daughters of the Lord.
And that is the challenge God has given me this year.
To walk in His Ways, through His Spirit.
Bearing much fruit, through His design.
Blooming where He has me in faithful, joyful obedience and surrender.
What has God laid on your heart to walk with Him in this year?
–LIZ–
