When
Christ, who is our life (Colossians 3:4), comes to dwell within us, He
wants to live life for us and through us. It is through our relationship with
Christ that He empowers us to live the Christian life, even though we are now
strangers and pilgrims on this earth (1 Peter
2:11). Every choice
we make comes as the result of prayer and the leading of God’s Holy Spirit (Colossians 3:1; Galatians 5:16,25). We yield to the Spirit’s direction throughout the day as
we submit to Him, and He transforms us and renews our mind (Ephesians 4:30; Romans 12:1-2; 2 Corinthians 3:18).
The
reality of our union with Christ is that we are already dead to the bondage of
worldly influence, to the lure of sinful pleasures and to the lofty ambitions
of our old life. In our growth in Christ, we acknowledge that we are indeed
crucified with Christ, we are dead and our new resurrection life is hidden with
Christ in God. God replaces our old nature with His new life. We are raised
with Christ and we set our mind on the eternal aspects of life. We feast on His
Word until it dwells in us richly.
Our
citizenship is in Heaven (Philippians 3:20). We have no meaningful life apart
from Christ. We adopt His purpose to seek and to save the lost; His perspective
of doing the Father’s will; and His practice of prayer, humility and obedience (Luke 5:16, 19:10; Philippians 2:5-8; Hebrews 5:8). We live by the faith of the Son
of God through every new adventure He devises for us (Galatians 2:20). Even in secular employment and activities, we do all in the name of Jesus
(1 Corinthians 10:31).
As we
seek first His Kingdom, He provides us with everything we need to fulfill His
purpose with our life (Matthew 6:33). Christ in us is greater than Satan and all of his demons (1 John
4:4). We have the
mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16), and we take our carnal thoughts
captive and make them obedient to Christ (2 Corinthians
10:5). We receive
the mind of Christ and understand the things of God by His Spirit, having
discernment in every area of life (1 Corinthians
2:5-15). We do not
have to strive and strain to die daily. We simply fully embrace the truth that
Christ lives in us and wants to live through us.
We are
raised with Christ in newness of life and we will appear with Christ in glory
at the end of this age (Romans 6:4,8, 10). These facts have practical
relevance to our walk in Christ each day on this earth. They give us hope, faith
and the power to walk in the Spirit. We minister to one anther and to the world
around us (Galatians 2:20; Colossians 3:1-16;
Ephesians 2:5-6). We set our affection on eternal
matters and we do not worry about or stress over the issues in this life.
As a
fully human person, we often feel like we are fighting life, the world and
Satan all alone. But if we remember that we are also fully Divine, because
Christ lives in us with all the power of the triune God, then we can step aside
and allow Jesus to deal with the situation that is troubling us. He will direct
our preparation and then teach the class, preach the sermon, write the article,
witness to our lost co-worker, deal with that rude person, supervise in the
workplace, take our tests, clean the house, care for the children and overcome
any situation in our life (Colossians 3:17).
Prayer:
Lord
Jesus, seeking You is the passion of our life. We desire above everything else
to walk in Your ways and to be an expression of You in the earth (1 John 3:1-3, 9). Our life is hidden in You in the same way that a seed is hidden in the
earth. We too will bear much fruit as we live
life totally empty of our self and in surrender to Your Lordship within us. We are transformed by renewing our mind, rather than
by allowing the world to conform us into its mold. Then, we will be able to
test and discern what our Father’s good, pleasing and perfect will is for us each moment of every day (Romans 12:2).
Thought
for the Day:
Our life
is an extension of and inseparable from the Lord Jesus Christ. - John 15:5
