A Life Worth Living

Life is only worth living as we live it for God. Jesus surrendered all to Our Father - even His crucifixion and death on the cross (Matthew 26:36-56). He gave us this example to follow.

God is more than one who answers our prayers. He is Supreme Ruler of the universe. We owe Him our allegiance. The least we can do is to surrender all to Him.

Once we realize the true meaning of Christ abiding in us, we appreciate our unity with Him, depend on Him for every breath we take, and trust in His grace and love.

He gives us power for our service for Him, gladness in our fellowship with Him and His Saints, and security in His goodness and provision for all of our daily needs.

Since God supplies all of our needs, if we do not have something we want, this means that we do not really need it at this time in our life. As we wait patiently on His timing and will, He will put His desires in our heart and we will live in true contentment.

When we surrender to God our cares in this life, we not only improve our outlook on life, but also our physical health, our emotional balance and our spirit's well-being.

We dedicate every waking moment to Him: serving in the vocation, ministering in the neighborhood and church family, and dedicating our fun times to the service to which He calls us.

We enter His rest, bask in His presence and walk in His will each moment of our day and night. We join all of creation in groaning for His glorious redemption and appearing (Romans 8:19-22).

His abiding presence in our life fills us with hope, gives us His joy as our strength and inspires us to live in the happiest place on earth - the very center of His will.

Prayer:

Father God, remind us that sin separates us from You, and apathy will rob us of the joy of our salvation. You reveal to us Your path of life and in Your presence is fullness of joy (Psalm 16:11). You never hide Your face from your children as we walk in Your will and love You with our whole heart, soul, mind and strength (Luke 10:27).

We joy in Your continual presence in our life, we delight in doing Your will which You write on our heart, and we draw from Your constant strength which supports us throughout our day (Habakkuk 3:18; Psalm 40:8). We owe You all of our praise and dedicate our life only to you.

Thought for the Day:

We rest in undisturbed repose, unimaginable joy and a life blessed with quietness and worship as we totally surrender every aspect of our life to God.

The Soul's Rest

In the Old Testament, Believers worshipped in temples of stone and mortar. Their contact with God was from the first five books of our Bible. Today, God dwells in us, not in temples made with human hands (Romans 10:9). In the New Testament, we have 66 books of God’s Word to encourage and instruct us, along with God’s Spirit within us.

Jesus is the chief cornerstone on which all of us, as “living stones” in His Temple, are centered (1 Peter 2:4-6). We have a deepening understanding of the reality of Christ who dwells in us (Colossians 1:27). This reality changes our outlook on life and affects our body, soul and spirit. We enter God’s rest forever (Hebrews 4:9-10).

God rested after He created the universe. Jesus rested after carrying the burden of our sin to the cross. Now, we can rest from serving God through compulsion. Instead, we serve Him from a place of love. The doorway to this rest is through total surrender to God’s will and to Christ in us, which is our hope of living in glory both now and in eternity (Colossians 1:27).

Our humanity is dead and we are a new creation with Christ living in and through us. We decrease so that He can increase (John 3:30). We cease from our human striving and follow God’s Spirit through every moment of every day (Galatians 5:16-25). Our ultimate rest will be when we leave this sin-cursed world behind and live instead in the Kingdom of Heaven (2 Corinthians 5:8).

Until then we dwell in Christ, as Christ abides in us. We die with Christ and He raises us to walk in newness of life (Romans 6:4). We live by the faith of the Son of God, who loves us and gave Himself for us (Ephesians 5:2). We seek His will and He directs our paths (Proverbs 3:5-6). The peace of God rules in our hearts (Colossians 3:15; Philippians 4:7).

Prayer:

Father God, remind us not to strive in our life, but to submit our will to Yours each and every day. Help us to accomplish the works, which You prepared for us to do before we were ever born (Ephesians 2:10). Bring people our way to whom we can share Your love and give us the boldness to proclaim to them Your truth.

Thought for the Day:

Yoke up with Jesus and find rest for your soul. – Matthew 11:29