06/21/2025
There comes a point in our faith life when we have given ourselves over to God, and trust so completely in Jesus Christ, that the struggle for righteousness ends and our faith becomes as natural as taking our next breath. Is this what we seek today, or do we fight daily with our human nature in an attempt to walk a fine line between our earthly life and heaven... and not truly becoming a resident in either place.
“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 the United States of 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 instead in that place where the two adjoin and easily 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 spiritual man 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.
Thise physical 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 mightily 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, and they did this 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 in fact 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 physical world like a deer and move back and forth between God's presence and our humanness. We use prayer and God's forgiveness like the deer use its well-worn trails in and out of the fields... they are easy paths between two 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 travels between heaven and earth we become vulnerable, and Lucifer attempts to block our return to righteousness while making us his prey. There in that place which is neither heaven or earth he pounces on us and devours our souls.
So how do we conquer our 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 true residents of the kingdom of God? The answer is simple… 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 true 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 in 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... I encourage you to 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.
“Then the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the Lord out of heaven. 25 And he overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground. 26 But Lot's wife, behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.”
Genesis 19:24-26 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 fixed always upon you and that the call, and longing for, what 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 and peace in you. Praised be your name Lord, and great is your presence in me. You are my God and in you I will dwell eternally. I have lost my old life, Father, but found myself to be a new creature in your Son Jesus. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Amen!
“Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”
Matthew 10:39 ESV
Rich Forbes