The Ground You Grow On

“The one who says he remains in Him should walk just as He walked” (1 John 2:6).

Have you ever noticed how kids imitate their parents? They mimic their facial expressions and adopt their speech patterns—even imitate the way they walk.  

As a son or daughter of God, we are meant to imitate Jesus. In Ephesians, we’re told to “Be imitators of God, therefore, as beloved children, and walk in love, just as Christ loved us…” (Ephesians 5:1-2). Our lives are meant to reflect Him, but how do we put that into practice? It’s easy for us to say, “Walk like Jesus,” but do we really know how to imitate Him?

Even a seasoned Christian looks at the life of Jesus and thinks, “There’s no way I will ever live up to His expectation.” Jesus was a miracle worker. He had goodness and grace that we can only dream of having, right? We will never live on this earth without falling into sin and failing at some point. However, we are called to be imitators of Christ and grow to be more like Him. It’s a process. It takes time, but Jesus’ life illustrates how to live in holiness.

No one becomes a Christian and immediately knows everything about living holy. We all feel underqualified to be “holy” because it seems like such an unattainable goal. But if we look at Jesus’ life, He shows us. He gives us the blueprint of His heart.

You grow from where you’re rooted. You grow from where you’re planted. Therefore you must be in good soil; you must be grounded in the right places. Jesus lived His life in a pattern. Over the next few devotions, we will be looking in-depth at the pattern of His life. It’s a three-fold pattern that He illustrates, and when we adopt His practice—His blueprint for life—we see the evidence of Him in everything we do.

The pattern in this: Up, In, Out.

Jesus looked up to His Father; He spent time with His family, and He went after those who were far from God.

You see, there are no miracles without being in unity with the Miracle Worker; there is no unity in the Church without us growing with our spiritual family, and we cannot reach those far from God when we are not steady and secure in Him.
It’s all about where you grow from. Before you have goodness, before you have grace, before you live a life of holiness—it’s about the ground. Where is your heart growing from? That’s where Jesus begins His work.