Before you answer, consider, you were bought with a price; and you are no longer your own, but God’s. The Bible says your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which you have of God, therefore, you shall glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s. {I Corinthians 6:19-20}.
God went on to confirm this by telling us, ye are the temple of the living God; as God has said, I will dwell in them, IN YOU, and walk in them, IN YOU, and I will be their God, YOUR GOD, and they shall be my people. {II Corinthians 6:16}.
God loves us so much, that He sent His only begotten Son to die on the cross, while bearing our sins, for each, and every one of us. When Jesus was hanging on that cross not only was He thinking about you and me, He was also carrying the weight of each of our sins, not because He had to, but because He wanted to, because of His love for us.
He died in our place, for us, how can we not live for Him? How can we not be completely committed to Him? I don’t know about you, but the idea of completely, 100% living for the Lord is something I desire and strive for; unfortunately, I am a sinner; and I will be until the day I die, which means, no matter how hard I try to live for the Lord I still fail; but that isn’t an excuse to stop trying to live a life pleasing to Him, for Him.
How hard can it be to live completely committed to the Lord?
What does He require?
Jesus wants us to make a deliberate decision to let Him be Lord of our lives. How do we do this?
1. By giving complete and total surrender of all our rights and life to Him
2. To acknowledge and recognize He is the One who plots the course of our lives; He leads, guides and directs us.
3. All we have to do is follow Him, trust Him and obey Him
On paper it’s so easy. But when it comes to application…that’s a different story!
Faithfully reading my Bible helps me surrender every part of my life to Christ, when difficult situations arise I can easily recall Scripture on what to do or how to react that brings honor to God. When I am faithful in my personal Bible study I hear God’s voice more clear, and often find myself conversing with the Lord throughout the day about everything!
When I am faithful in church attendance I get fed and draw closer to the Lord, it gives me a time to self-evaluate according to the Word that was brought and opportunity to confess and repent of any sin that needs to be dealt with.
When I faithfully pray I hunger for more prayer and feel closer to the Lord and thus it is easier to live for Him and allow Him to live through me; telling me how to respond and react to any situation.
This is what I want, I want this kind of relationship with Him ALL the time!
So, why can’t it be that way all the time? Why do I move away from time to time?
1. I put other things before God. When I am committed to God, I won’t do anything else in the morning until I’ve read my Bible and prayed; I start my day off with God; but let me over sleep one morning – and it all seems to go down the toilet. It doesn’t have to. Even if I over sleep, if I take the ten minutes to read and pray, the Lord makes sure I still get everyone off on time and everything works out fine, but I end up taking God off His throne and allow stress and worry to sit there instead and it becomes so very easy to get off track, and tell the Lord, ‘I’ll be with you shortly”…..
2. I get fleshly. With some people it can be so easy to step into the flesh when I am around them; I don’t do it on purpose; it just happens…when I know I am going to be around these people, I pray and ask the Lord to help me to do not do that and to let Him work through me so that they may see Him through me.
3. Pride. I don’t think there is anything that pulls us away from God, and out of His will any quicker than pride. It’s sneaky, and quiet, it’s on ‘your side’ and slips in quietly before choking the life right out of you.
None of us live or die to ourselves; weather we live or die, we are the Lords {Romans 14:7-8}. We have been purchased with the blood of Christ {Acts 20:28}; Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law {Galatians 3:13; I Peter 1:19; Revelation 5:9}, because He loves us.
Since Christ so willingly died for us, shouldn’t we be more willing to die to self and live for Him, even when life isn’t easy? Will you commit to live totally to and for God?
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Jenn
Thank you for writing this post. Often, I feel ill equipped to do anything for the Lord. However, I know that He doesn't call you do fulfill a mission unless He equips. I am learning to look pass the things I am facing and to look only to Him. I can attest this is always as easily done as it is to say the words. Again, thank you and have a wonderful day! Jeannette
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing this with me! We all need to re-prioritize on a daily basis.
ReplyDeleteThank you for visiting Jamie! God bless you
DeleteI see I'm not alone in this. I, too, put other things before God, especially things that seem to be part of my calling. Thanks for sharing this as I need to come into alignment with Him. Him first, marriage second and blogging last. Thanks for the perspective on what's going on with me right now!
ReplyDeleteStopped by from Coffee for your Heart.