As Born Again Christians, Christ dwells within our spirit
by the presence of His Spirit. Our identity is totally centered in Him and
absorbed by Him. As we surrender our day to Him, He puts us in the right place
at the right time so that He can affect other lives for His glory. He uses our
situation in life to reach out to those whom He is drawing to His heart and
calling into His service. At times, we are not even aware that our simple
smile, kind word or interested comment will touch a heart with the love of God
from within us.
A life centered in Christ resembles the tire on a bicycle.
The many spokes of our service all centered in the hub of Christ within us. The
spokes provide perfect tension between the hub and the rim of the tire, which
is the sum of our existence. We cease from our labor and enter God’s rest (Hebrews
4:10). Then, Christ uses our body and soul – our thoughts, will and emotions
– to perform His work in the earth. He keeps us in perfect balance as the
Spirit propels us forward throughout our day.
Life is not about what we do, but about what Christ does in
and through us (Jeremiah 18:6). Led by God’s Spirit, we watch
in amazement as Christ reaches out in various ways, which we least expect
throughout the day. We are the branches; He is the vine (John
15:4). We are the wires, but He is the current of electricity. We are the
pipes, but He is the living water flowing through us. We are the gloves, but He
is the hand, which fills the glove and mobilizes it according to His will.
We walk in Him, established in our faith (Colossians
2:6-7). God works through Jesus in us to produce that which is
pleasing in His sight (Hebrews 13:21). We are not able to do anything
for God apart from Christ, but Christ in us does all things well (Philippians
4:13). We continually respond to the leading of God’s Spirit and Jesus
ministers through us for our Father’s glory (James 2:17, 20,26). We live
to manifest His character and nature to the world around us.
Sometimes God may even put us on a shelf. We have no
special service for which He is calling us. At times like these, He is calling
us to pray for whomever He puts on our heart. At other times, we have more
ministry opportunities than we can possibly handle. That is because God wants
us to delegate some of our ministry to others, so they will have meaningful
service for Him as well.
Prayer:
Father God, You restore mankind to Yourself by the
manifestation of the presence of Your Son in the life of every Believer. We
enjoy the benefits of Your Kingdom now as well as in eternity (Luke
17:21). We reign over sin and death through Christ in us (Romans
5:16-17). We have no need to build up our self-actualization, self-efficacy
or self-sufficiency, because we totally rest in the all-sufficiency of Your Son
within us (2 Corinthians 3:5).
Thought for the Day:
We are not only connected to the Lord by our
constant communication with Him, but also by our union with Him.
