What does that statement, "keep it real," really mean for a Believer? In our culture, we often use it to express a desire for honesty, realness or truth. At times we even use it as a way to pardon bad behavior or rudeness.
As a citizen and representative of God's kingdom, though, "keeping it real" should be a reminder to us whose we are, children of the Most High God, followers of and new creations in Jesus Christ.
Ephesians 2:19-20 says,
"So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone,"
So what difference does the cross of Christ make in our "keeping it real?" What difference does it make that we strive to model before others whose kingdom we're truly a part of and longing for?
As a mom, I want to give my children every opportunity by equipping and preparing them for what I believe will give them the best from this life but if I exhaust my time, money and other resources on things that ultimately have no eternal value, I actually do my children a disservice.
Often times I strive to fill our homeschooling days with well thought out planning and good intentions of sowing good, godly seeds in my children's tender hearts yet how do I respond when the day derails and no one seems interested in learning or obeying and I've totally flown off the handle in response and blown up in frustration toward them? I can "keep it real."
Show them whose I am by modeling humility and showing them my dependence, even as an adult, on Christ as I ask for their forgiveness as well as God's. The difference that Christ's shed blood made on the cross for the forgiveness of sins, including mine, means that I no longer need to view humility; humbling myself before God, my husband, my children and others, as a weakness. Rather, I can "keep it real" and rejoice in the realness that Jesus' perfect atoning sacrifice affords me.
Humble obedience to God and pure love is a necessary characteristic for any citizen of God's kingdom and no one displayed it more beautifully than Jesus at the cross. Christians are not perfect but when we sin we should want others to see the strength displayed in humbling ourselves before God in repentance and obedience. In short, we need to remember to "keep it real."