08/27/2026
We claim we are children of the one true God, and that we have accepted Jesus Christ as our savior, and we might even say that we have been born again in the Spirit, but are we living a spiritual life? Have we actually crucified our old selves, or does that old person of the past still linger on and continue to haunt and dominate who we are? We might pray every day, but are they sincere prayers; even heathens can string words together. It is only when we are living a truly spiritual life, and our old selves have been left behind us, that we can truly walk as we should, and pray with the power we have been promised!
“And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.”
Galatians 5:24-25 ESV
At Christmas, when I was a child, my parents would buy me such things as a cowboy outfit with a hat, boots, Spurs, chaps, guns and all the trappings, and one year a football uniform complete with shoulder pads, cleats, and helmet. I would dress up in these outfits and run all around the house shouting “Look at me Mom, I’m a cowboy”... or sometimes “Hut one, Hut two,” and then run for touchdowns in the back yard. Despite how I dressed, and the motions I went through I wasn’t really a cowboy, or a football player. Until I grew up, and changed myself in the process, I could never really be either of these things. Unfortunately, we can also dress ourselves up as Christians and pray as though we truly are (Hut one, Hut two!) but until we allow Jesus to transform who we are, then we remain that old person inside and out.
Jesus doesn’t want us to imitate Him, he wants us to pick up our cross and become like Him. Being a Christian is more than playing the part, it is becoming that new person.
“Then Jesus told his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?”
Matthew 16:24-26 ESV
A great father, husband, and man died a few years ago, his name was Andre Blay; he was also a film producer, director, entrepreneur, created the home video industry, and accomplished many other great things in his lifetime. I was watching a videotape of a presentation he once made to the Michigan State University School of Business, and during it an MBA candidate asked him about one of his personal friends... Michael Douglas. The student asked if Mr. Douglas was the same in real life at the Blay dinner table as he appeared to be in the movies. To this Andre responded that we shouldn’t confuse the actor with the person. This is equally true when it comes to religion and faith... how we act, and who we are in private can reveal us to be two very different people... but only one is who we truly are. Pastor Andrew Murray brought this same observation into the Christian world in the early 1900s when he said…
“The Christian who is still carnal (fleshly) has neither the disposition nor the strength to follow after God. He remains satisfied with his prayer of habit and custom. But the glory and the blessedness of secret prayer is a hidden thing to him, until one day his eyes are opened, and he begins to see that the flesh in its disposition to turn away from God is the arch enemy that makes the powerful prayer impossible.” - Andrew Murray
Who are we? Are we the Apostle Paul who was converted in an instant, or the rich ruler who sought after Jesus but couldn’t sell all he owned to follow him? Are we the actor Michael Douglas on the silver screen, or the real one who had dinner with the Blay family? Are we confusing our own selves, denying the person we really are, while believing we are the person we wish to be?
So, I ask that we each take a closer look at our lives and question who we are. Is the person beneath the veneer of our skin, the person that everyone sees, actually Jesus, or is it still the same old man or woman who needed to know him on the day we first went to the altar? Did a new and changed self rise up from the water of baptism, or just the same old soul with wet hair and a new smile? Are we the actor or the dinner guest who dines with the Lord?
Prayer:
Father, I thank you for your Son Jesus Christ, and I pray that I become more like Him with each passing moment. Thank you also for your Holy Spirit that comforts and leads me in this endeavor. Help me Holy Father to be that person of Christ who I so long for. Change the old man I once was into a new and redeemed person who is righteous in both the flesh and spirit alike, and who I am when alone in prayer with you. Have mercy Father, and help me in my unbelief. Reach into the depths of me, and extract that part of me that causes you to grieve. Change my soul so that the righteousness that was once a pretense has become holiness in reality. Let me be perfected by your hand, even as I am redeemed by the blood of your Son Jesus. Let His precious blood course through my veins, and His flesh become mine. Separate the actor from the faithful in me Father, so that I might be true to your Word, and obedient to your will for me. Merciful and gracious are you Lord, for Holy, Holy, Holy are you who has separated the sinner from the new man I have become.
Father, I pray today that the sinful men and women we once were, will continue to become more like your Son Jesus with each passing breath. I pray that every one of us who desires to be like Him will set aside their old self, the actor, and truly become the same in the world that they are in Christ. Help us in our unbelief Father, and make us righteous and holy in every aspect of our lives so that we will be one with Christ and you will be glorified in who we are.
“Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.”
1 John 4:17 KJV
Amen!
Rich Forbes