Kathi Macias, click
here to update your pages on AuthorsDen.
Blogs by Kathi Macias
Yours...or God's? 6/12/2008 5:26:58 AM
Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you,
whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s (1 Cor. 6:19-20).
The world bombards us with the message that’s it our life and we can do what we want with it. God says otherwise. As Christians, we claim to believe what God says. But do we? If what we claim to believe doesn’t govern how we live, I question that we truly believe it.
For instance, if we claim to believe in the law of gravity, we probably aren’t going to jump off a mountain and see if we can fly. And yet, we claim to believe that God owns us, that He purchased us with great price—the blood of His own dear Son—and yet we often go through life calling our own shots and expecting God to bless our actions.
Even as the law of gravity wins out over trying to fly under our own power, so the law of sin and death wins out over trying to live a godly life under our own power. You and I have nothing within us that is good—except the Spirit of God if we are born-again believers. It is Christ in us that is our ONLY hope of glory (see Col. 1:27). Jesus said it clearly and concisely: “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). Jesus always said what He meant, and meant what He said. Unless we are born again and have the Spirit of God dwelling within us, we have no hope of glory, no hope of heaven…no hope at all.
But once we have made that commitment—truly repented and recognized our absolute inability to earn our way into heaven and therefore thrown ourselves completely on God’s mercy, asking Jesus to be our Savior and to send His Spirit to live within us—we must begin to live opposite the way of the world. When the world tells us it’s our life and we can choose what to do with it, we reject that lie and declare, “I am God’s; I have been bought by the blood of Christ. Therefore, I will walk in the steps He orders for me, devoting my life to His service—whatever that may be.” There is no room in the life of a true believer to claim ownership of our lives, our possessions, our relationships, our talents, or our time. We are here on this earth for one reason: to discover the purpose for which God has created and redeemed us, and then to fulfill it.
May we walk in the continual knowledge of the fact that we do not belong to ourselves but to Someone much greater—to the One who sent His only Son to shed His sinless blood on our behalf. And may that knowledge cause us to walk circumspectly, in grace and humility, integrity and mercy. For with every thought, word, and deed, we represent the One who owns us.
