“But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8), but God’s love does not leave us in our unholy state. God’s life sanctifies us, or “holy-fies” us.

The life of the believer is exciting as we connect with and live out of the life of Christ that lives in us. Christ sanctifies our entire being when he dwells within us. Not in external ways, like behavior modification, but in our deepest places where our very nature is transformed. Godly behavior is the fruit of our holiness, not the root of it. It’s like the Psalm 1 tree that is planted by living waters, soaking up all that life so it can produce leaves and fruit. It would be hard for a tree to produce leaves and fruit without drawing from its source of life.

So how do we draw from our source of life to produce the fruit of holiness that is consonant with the Christ-form within us?

Daily life includes many calls to relinquish our pride (that is, our independent will that wants to be in charge) to God’s ways. Adrian van Kaam says that God speaks in the midst of everydayness.

Is there a call in your life right now to relinquish your will and live in consonance with Christ in you? If so, the call is to choose what is best, not what is worst.

Relinquishment requires humility, a yielding of our will to God, a trust that God’s ways are the most good and beautiful of all. God’s grace will empower you by killing the pride-form first, setting you free to live in consonance with wholeness.

Faced with crisis, Job expressed his feelings of abandonment—“Why do you hide your face, and count me as your enemy?” he cried (Job 13:24). But God gave Job the grace to relinquish his will and to abandon himself to God. Job made a soul-stirring confession of great hope:

Job’s story is long and winding, but God’s grace enables Job to say yes to God with complete abandonment. Job would end up placing his hand over his mouth, signifying he would no longer question God’s ways.

Abraham is a great example of relinquishment flowing out of his relationship with God. Abraham did not offer up Isaac out of a vacuum but after years of receiving God’s love and care, of believing God’s dreams for him were bigger and better than his own for himself. Out of deep love and trust did Abraham sacrifice the dream of having his own son. Relinquishment opened the floodgates of blessings as numerous as the stars.

Imagine what saying yes to God always could look like in your life. There is a relational context to holiness. You do what is right as a stream flows out of a spring, in an organic way, flowing out of your relationship with Christ who dwells in and delights in you.

1. 1. Spend some time alone with God. Ask him what the next step is for you to live in consonance with Christ in you, the hope of glory. Then listen to God.

2. 2. Write what you hear God saying in your journal. Maybe it’s something small. Maybe it’s something big. The size isn’t important; the direction is. Job blessed God with his mouth long before he yielded and trusted God with his whole being over his huge losses of family and possessions. Both were growth.

3. 3. This isn’t something to rush. For now, just connect with the indwelling Christ. Ask him for his heart about your situation. Simply draw from your source of life. Notice the graces that Jesus is already giving to help you.

4. 4. Finally, in your journal write the graces that God has already given you that might help you say yes to God.