06/21/2023
There comes a point in our faith when we have given ourselves over to God, and we trust so completely in Christ, that the struggle for righteousness ends, and our faith becomes as natural as taking our next breath. Is this what you seek, or do you fight daily with your nature in an attempt to walk the fine line between your earthly life and heaven... not becoming a resident in either place…attempting to be a double citizen?
“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
Romans 12:2 ESV
Here in America we have White Tail Deer, and each evening they slip quietly out of the forest to feed in the fields. They are creatures of the edges; they are neither residents of the deep forest nor of the fields, but live in that place where the two adjoin and pass back and forth between them. This works well for the deer, but when we try to live our lives of faith in that place in which we can travel back and forth between our earthly selves and the righteous men and women we strive to be... there is turmoil in us and we cease to be fully worldly or righteous... failing in both regards, and remaining eternally conflicted.
This world, and the sin it contains, draws us; we are creatures of it fully until we accept Jesus Christ, and give our lives over to God. Before Jesus, there was only the law, and people struggled to walk a righteous path by using it as their compass. They were attempting to reach holiness without giving up their grasp on this world, by doing just enough to please God. They would live in the world and worship in the temple, they would offer worldly sacrifices to a spiritual God... but He wanted more from them... so He sent the Messiah... His Son Jesus Christ.
“I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.”
Romans 6:19 ESV
God wants us to join Him fully. He sent His Son to defeat sin and death to accomplish this... yet we struggle in our faith and we hold tight to our natural inclination towards sin. We attempt to live in the world like the deer and move back and forth between God's presence and our humanness. We use prayer and God's forgiveness like the deer use their well-worn trails in and out of the fields... easy paths between very different places.
Satan hunts us in this place just as the mountain lion and the hunter await the deer to make their movement from forest to field. In our traveling between heaven and earth we become vulnerable, and Lucifer attempts to block our return to righteousness and devour our souls.
So how do we conquer this desire to return to the lives we are attempting to leave? How do we serve God completely and abandon our desire to revisit that person we once were? How do we become permanent residents of the kingdom of God? We must give up our citizenship in the world we have left.
Changing our minds and our lives is a difficult thing; it takes resolve and time to overcome the memory of who we once were. We are like addicts who go to a rehabilitation center to dry out, but don't lose the memory of the drink or drug they left behind. Our world calls us just as certainly as a drink calls an alcoholic. But even as a religious experience can save an addict, God can change our lives as well. Jesus turns us from creatures of the edge into heavenly beings... waiting to join Him before our Father... forever.
“Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—”
Philippians 3:8-9 ESV
When we find our life in Christ, we are able to breathe our faith as easily as the air of our next breath, and the turmoil that once tormented us is gone. Are you there? Is this your desire? If you are still struggling to maintain a home in both places... give up your worldly citizenship and find peace in Christ. Keep your eyes on heavenly sights, and think on righteous topics... don't look back because all that lies behind is salt.
“And as they brought them out, one said, “Escape for your life. Do not look back or stop anywhere in the valley. Escape to the hills, lest you be swept away.” But Lot's wife, behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.”
Genesis 19:17, 26 ESV
Prayer:
Father, I thank you for the peace that you have brought into my life. I thank you for the redemptive power of your Son Jesus Christ and the salvation He has provided me. Holy Father I pray that my eyes remain always upon you and that the call of the life I have left behind never reaches my ears again. Let the struggle I once faced as I fought to defeat my old nature remain as far from me as the east is from the west, and give me rest in you. Praised be your name Lord, and great your presence in me. You are my God and in you I will dwell in eternity. I have lost my old life, Father, but found myself in your Son Jesus. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
“Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”
Matthew 10:39 ESV
Rich Forbes