“I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.” Galatians 2:20 NIV
“It is arrogance to assume that your life is yours to do with as you want.”
My thoughts today are about being “fully alive.”
It is easy to assume a mistaken idea of what it means to be fully alive. Some think that means to live as you want with no restraints, free to do what you want when you want and to whomever you want. At the root of such an idea is wrongly thinking that your life is yours to do with as you want. Is that ever really true?
Here’s what the Bible plainly says as Paul writes to Christ-followers who were living carelessly and independently, “You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.” 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 NLT. Consider this, “Live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear. For you know that . . you were redeemed from the empty way of life . . with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish.” 1 Peter 1:17-19 NIV. What a price God paid for you! If you rightly belong to another, there is a debt of love, obedience, and service you owe.
There is a measure of that principle to be seen in ordinary employment. You can’t accept another man’s wages and then work as you please, and if you please. Even more so, this principle is very true in marriage. You voluntarily embrace sacred vows that come with restraints and accountability to live for another’s best. You know what happens to the success of either of those if you reserve to yourself the right to live as you please. Human nature accepts, even expects, privilege while demanding every option and ignoring any personal obligation. Life will not work that way for you.
The best life is found in doing what you should, not as you would – joyfully doing what God wants rather than what you or others want. Your life came from God and daily comes from God. Do you not then owe Him everything? Read Romans 11:33-36 NLT.
As a teen, I learned a simple chorus: “Without Him, I could do nothing; without Him, I’d surely fail; without Him, I would be drifting, like a ship without a sail.” I have found those words to still be true. Faith is not an attachment to your life; it is the heart and core. From that, every other thing revolves.
Trying to live by your clever wits, depending upon your own strength, obeying any impulse, and pleasing yourself first and foremost just does not work out in the long haul. Life can be tough when you try to live it on your own terms. There is a sweet surrender when you come to the end of yourself, and there find that God is your sufficiency. Read John 6:66-69 NIV.
Have you heard a person say someone “doesn’t have a life?” The Bible describes such a person, “who lives for pleasure (and) is dead, even while he lives.” 1 Timothy 5:6 NIV. Isn’t that a sad description? But that’s true of some, who are simply unwilling to allow Christ to live in and through them. Here’s the rest of Paul’s words, “I have been crucified with Christ. I myself no longer live, but Christ lives in me. So I live my life in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” Galatians 2:19-20 NLT. That’s the only way to be fully alive, as you were intended!
My prayer for you is: that you know what life really is and where that alone can be found.