Painting Our Lives with Christ

“So let us stop going over the basic teachings about Christ again and again. Let us go on instead and become mature in our understanding. Surely we don’t need to start again with the fundamental importance of repenting from evil deeds and placing our faith in God.”

(Hebrews 6:1, NLT)

You can see from the picture what I spent last week doing. We have taken on the task of replacing our fascia and repainting all the trim on the house - a much larger job than I first anticipated. It has been a long time since this has been worked on, so it has required removing the old fascia, washing and scraping the old paint, priming (with an oil based primer), building out the new fascia, and then painting (fortunately with a latex paint). As the picture shows, it is very satisfying to see the difference even primer makes!

As we walk with Christ, sometimes our paint gets a little old … maybe even peeling off. We may be at a point where Christ feels somewhat far away because we have not been doing the work of growing in Christ / of upkeeping our relationship with Him.

In the writing of Hebrews, the author addresses our tendency to be complacent in our walk with God. We sit satisfied where we are instead of continuing to grow, trust, and serve. We expect God to come alongside us rather than doing the work of putting ourselves alongside Him. We too often remain in the elementary principles of our faith so it requires little of us.

However, we are called to do the work! We are not only to upkeep but to build up; our walk with Christ is not only about maintenance but about strengthening and growth. “Let us … become mature in our understanding.”