If we live life with one foot on the
dock, and the other foot in the boat, we will end up getting dunked once the
two move apart for any reason. The slightest turmoil in the water will cause us
to lose our balance.
God says the lukewarm people - those
who live with one foot in the world, and one in the church - make Him sick to
His stomach! He would rather that we live up to our convictions and either
follow Him wholeheartedly or not at all.
To live any other way is incomplete
surrender, hypocritical and smears the name of Christ in front of the world.
Even unbelievers know how Christians are supposed to act, and they lose respect
for us and for God when we are hypocrites.
God calls us to live in complete
surrender to Him; rather than living partly for Him, but mostly for our own
plans and goals. When we seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, He
will add to our life everything that we really need (Matthew 6:33).
At salvation, the Holy Spirit circumcises
our soul - our mind, will and emotions, separating our fleshly carnal nature
from our maturing spiritual nature (Galatians 5:25-25).
Change is an everyday occurrence in
some area of our life; yet, at times it seems like transformation to the nature
of Christ and conformation to the mind of Christ are painfully slow.
Our motto is, "Not I, but
Christ" (Galatians 2:20, 29). Christ is our whole life (Colossians 3:3-4).
We know the Trinity intimately and we obey God's precepts (1 John 2:3).
We take joy in who we are becoming in
Christ and we bloom and flourish where He plants us. God's Spirit teaches us
what to say, when to say it; how to act and what service to render to whom in
His timing (1 Corinthians 2:13).
We flourish into the image of Christ
who abides within us (2 Corinthians 3:18), grow in intimacy with Jesus and serve Him
with our whole heart as we follow His Spirit's plan for each moment of our day.
Prayer:
Father God, thank You for drawing us
close to You and never letting us go, for revealing to us Your mercy and power,
for allowing us to suffer for Your name's sake, for conforming us to Christ's
death and for perfecting us until we attain the prize of Your high calling
(Philippians 2:11-12, 3:10-14).
You give us Your inheritance when we
bring glory and honor to You through our thoughts, words and actions (1 Peter
1:3-4). We are co-heirs with Christ in all He took back from Satan by His death
on Calvary's Cross. Regardless of our past and current circumstances, You give
us a rewarding future in Your presence and Kingdom.
Thought for the Day:
Living with divided loyalties between
the carnal and spiritual drains us mentally, physically, emotionally and
financially; Jehovah is God, and there is no other.
