{"id":882,"date":"2017-04-06T01:54:18","date_gmt":"2017-04-06T01:54:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/joy-in-the-journey.com\/?p=882"},"modified":"2025-04-12T14:53:22","modified_gmt":"2025-04-12T18:53:22","slug":"the-christian-life-is-a-dance-not-a-march-2-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/joy-in-the-journey.com\/?p=882","title":{"rendered":"The Christian Life is a Dance not a March (Republished In The Moments)"},"content":{"rendered":"

So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure (Philippians 2:12-13).\u00a0 <\/strong><\/em>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s easy to read the above verses and get caught up with the word \u201cwork\u201d in the beginning and miss the incredible freedom at the end.<\/p>\n

I’ve lived in the \u201cwork\u201d part for far too long and just about missed the essence of the Christian life.<\/p>\n

It started before I truly believed. Until I was 21 years old, growing up in a socially Christian family, I thought I was going to heaven because I \u201cbelieved\u201d in Jesus and thought my good \u201cworks\u201d outweighed my bad.\u00a0 In other words, I hadn\u2019t killed anybody and performed some good deeds like walking little old ladies across the street. In my uninformed mind, this made me good enough for heaven.<\/p>\n

Back then, my idea of being \u201cborn again,\u201d was associated with being judgmental and living a life of rules which choked out all joy. I had no desire to live like that.<\/p>\n

Just like everyone else, I was searching for joy in the world around me. I had no concept that the hole in my soul was eternal and could only be filled with God himself.\u00a0A trip to jail brought me to my senses and turned my attention to my creator. Eventually I surrendered my life to my Lord Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n

This was a marvelous day, but it took me years to realize the Christian life is not just something else to \u201cwork\u201d at. Living as a Christian is so different than anything else I’d ever experienced.<\/p>\n

Over time, and I must admit, I\u2019m still learning it, the true nature of living the Christian life began to become clear.\u00a0Christianity is not primarily about rules, it\u2019s about a relationship with Christ. \u00a0He did the work. Ours is to respond to what’s he’s already done.<\/p>\n

Our life is not an arduous march<\/em> to a set of rules. It’s more like a dance<\/em>; us responding to Christ our partner as he leads us in a \u00a0dynamic relationship.[1]<\/p>\n

This changes everything.<\/p>\n

“for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.[2]<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Spiritually, we’ve \u00a0died and Christ, by his Holy Spirit, has taken up residence in our lives. The \u201cwork\u201d we now do is a work of dependence, yielding to Christ as he produces the fruit of his Spirit in our lives.[3]<\/p>\n

We don\u2019t march around like robotic soldiers to a sheet of rules. We dance with God as he leads us through difficulties as his life is formed in us.<\/p>\n

Prayer: <\/strong>Most gracious, heavenly Father. I\u2019m sorry I spent much of my life totally misunderstanding the way you interact with me as your son. You\u2019ve not left me alone to fend for myself. You\u2019re involved in every dance step of my life and want me to enjoy being with you through every circumstance. Draw me ever closer to you as we dance together here. I praise you that one day, I\u2019ll see you face to face.<\/em><\/p>\n

[1] From a conference at the Cove by Pete Briscoe about Galatians 2:20<\/p>\n

[2] Philippians 2:13<\/p>\n

[3] Galatians 2:20<\/p>\n

Joy in the Journey is about the gladness of God\u2019s nearness in the midst of life\u2019s adventures.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Subscribe below to get email notifications of new posts. We post a few times a month. Thank you for reading.\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>Novels by the Author:<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/span>
Rob Buck<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What happens when a professor figures out how to send messages to his younger self to try and avoid the suicide of his best friend? Did he change more than he bargained for?\u00a0\u00a0Beyond Time<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

By finding two undelivered letters in a old shack deep in the woods, Cassie and Daniel unknowing set off a series of events which uncover a plot to wipe out a whole family\u00a0Hope Remains<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure (Philippians 2:12-13).\u00a0 \u00a0 It\u2019s … Continue reading The Christian Life is a Dance not a March (Republished In The Moments)<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6230,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[397,6],"tags":[317,401,403,399,405,408,127,18,406,134,7,400,404,407,398,402,81],"class_list":["post-882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-indwelling-christ","category-overflow","tag-believe","tag-born-again","tag-christian-life","tag-dancing","tag-freedom","tag-fruit-of-the-spirit","tag-galatians-220","tag-holy-spirit","tag-john-151-2","tag-john-155","tag-joy","tag-marching","tag-overflow","tag-pete-briscoe","tag-philippians-212-13","tag-work","tag-yielding"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/joy-in-the-journey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/joy-in-the-journey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/joy-in-the-journey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joy-in-the-journey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joy-in-the-journey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=882"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/joy-in-the-journey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/882\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6851,"href":"https:\/\/joy-in-the-journey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/882\/revisions\/6851"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joy-in-the-journey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/joy-in-the-journey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joy-in-the-journey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joy-in-the-journey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}