Matthew 16:24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.
As
Christians, we are to live with a more extraordinary passion to yield ourselves
to God than the passion with which we yielded ourselves to selfish
gratification as non-Christians. We do not stand still in our walk with the
Lord; we move forward or backward. If, as believers in Christ Jesus, we do
not continue to apply the principles of God's Word to our experience, we will
deteriorate or relapse in our Christian walk. When we begin this relapse,
we will soon find ourselves out of fellowship with Christ Jesus. The longer we
stay out of fellowship with our Lord and Savior, the steeper the decline in our
spiritual life will be. Progressing forward in our Christian walk with a life
set apart for God through Christ Jesus is imperative. If we do not sense that
our life is God's, we will begin to live for self-gratification.
Our body is God's property, He is to
have a total say and access to what we do with our lives. When we refuse, we
intrude upon His claim on our lives, creating problems for us and others. There
comes a time in every believer's life when we must die to self and recognize we
belong to God. There is a distinction between our position and our condition.
What Jesus did for us through His mercy and grace never changes; our standing
before God is eternal. However, our Christian living is a dynamic that does
change.
We will never be able to live our
spiritual life without faith. If we regress to a struggle with sin, there is no
expectation for a victorious life in Christ Jesus. The deciding issue is
not any good work we might do but the work of God for us. We live by faith in
both justification and sanctification. In other words, we have faith that what
Christ Jesus did at the Cross and the tomb when he rose from the dead allows us
to know eternal life.
We must yield ourselves to God. A Yield
sign on the highway means that we must allow others to have the right of way;
they have the right to be first. Demanding our way can often lead to terrible
accidents in which other people get hurt as well.
A pilot was having trouble bringing his
plane down to land. From the control tower, he was giving instructions.
"But there is a pole there," he objected. The answer came back,
"You take care of the instructions; we will take care of the obstructions.
"Folks, if we obey His instructions, He will take care of all the
obstructions. Give up everything to Him, and He will take care of us. A bumper
sticker on some cars reads: GOD IS MY CO-PILOT. If God is our co-pilot, we must
change seats and allow God his rightful place in the pilot's seat.
As believers, we must give up the idea
that we own our lives and not allow ourselves to rule. God has a shallow
opinion of self-rule, better known as self-righteousness. It comes down to a
matter of trust. Can we trust God to rule our lives? Do we think that we know
better than Him? It's time to give up and give God control.
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