We are born with a body and a soul – our mind, will and emotions. We
also have a spirit – our connection to God – but it is dead in Adam’s sin
(Romans 5:12). We grow up searching for some way to revive that dead spirit.
We try money, clothes, shoes, cars, homes, education, thrills, elaborate
vacations, vocational success, beauty spas, cruises, relationships, and knowing
all the right people.
Many people try the intellectual route by improving their mind through
pursuing philosophy and all of the education channels available. Some chase after physical excellence with martial arts, diet, yoga and/or rigorous exercise
routines.
Others dabble in spiritual pursuits such as Eastern religions, Satanism,
the occult, witchcraft, sorcery, New Age ideologies, etc. These means only
serve to frustrate us, however, because there is no reality in them.
They never bring to us the fulfillment for which we are seeking. We
still ache deep inside, because our spirit is dead (Ephesians 2:1). This is
when we realize that we need a Savior.
There is only one truly fulfilling and lasting source of salvation, and
that is through Jesus Christ. The
first step toward spiritual maturity is to recognize that Jesus became human,
so that we might become divine through Him (2 Peter 1:4).
Prayer:
Father
God, You devised a plan so that when Jesus became sin, we received His
righteousness. By faith in Jesus Christ, we actually become a new creation (2
Corinthians 5:17). When
You look at authentic Christians, You do not see a sin-filled human, but a glorified
Saint in Christ.
Before You
even created the world, You planned for our spirit to be Born Again, so that we
can find the peace, reality and fulfillment that were never possible for us
through any other venue. Our faith in You is the promise of things we hope for
and the evidence of things we cannot see (Hebrews 11:1).
Thought
for the Day:
We surrender our old, carnal nature to God and He creates in us a whole
new person as we surrender our sin nature in exchange for the righteousness of
Christ.
- Ephesians 4:24; 2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 Peter 2:24; Romans 5:8
