The
devil used to be our father (John 8:44). Now, through Christ in us, we are
acceptable to God - a living sacrifice to Him, that does not need to be ashamed
(Romans 12:1; 2 Timothy 2:15).
Jesus
is our all in all; He is our life (Colossians 3:11; Colossians 3:4). His
strength is made perfect in our weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9). Through Him, we
can accomplish every good work, which He designed for us to do (Ephesians
2:10).
As
we work out our own salvation, it is God who gives us the desire and the wisdom
to complete this feat. He effectively works out our salvation in us, through
His presence in our life (Philippians 2:12-13).
At
salvation, we are crucified with Christ, nevertheless we are still human. Yet,
we do not live our life according to our human reasoning, but through Christ,
who abides in us and lives in and through us (Galatians 2:20).
The
life that we now live as a human being is lived by the faith of Jesus, who
loves us and gave His life for us (John 3:16-17). We do not need to give our
self another moment of our attention.
We
can totally focus on Christ in us and follow the leading of His Spirit each
moment of our day. When we do this, He will take care of all of our needs by
giving us His wisdom and power to solve every issue, as He provides for us (Matthew
6:33; 1 Peter 5:7).
There
is no need to work for God (Ephesians 2:7-8), but simply to allow Him to work
through us, in order to accomplish His will for us each and every day
(Ephesians 2:10).
Every
authentic Believer has a spot in the Kingdom of God in which to serve at the
pleasure of our King Jesus. Jesus, through God's Spirit in us, gradually transforms
us into holy, pure, blameless and perfect vessels for His use.
Prayer:
Father
God, thank You for taking us, the "walking dead" who were in bondage
to depravity and sin, and giving us Your new life. You made it possible that
Christ is not only with us, but abiding in us as well (Galatians 2:20). That is
such a glorious mystery.
We
are so grateful to You that this is a fact that we can believe, and on which we
can count. We pray that You use us as a magnifying glass, so that when people
look at us, they see Christ in us, rather than us. We do not want any glory for
what You accomplish through our life. We only want more intimacy with You.
Thought
for the Day:
Through
Jesus' sacrifice for us on Calvary's cross, God brought our spirit from the
grave into glory with Jesus, and allowed us to sit with him in the heavenly
realm; therefore, we are no longer satisfied with living in and focusing on
this earthly realm, because there is true freedom only in Christ and His
Kingdom.
-
2 Corinthians 5:21; Ephesians 2:6
