When God lives and breathes in you…you are delivered from that dead life. With his Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ's!
Oh, how I want to be delivered!
So don't you see that we don't owe this old do-it-yourself life one red cent. There's nothing in it for us, nothing at all. The best thing to do is give it a decent burial and get on with your new life. God's Spirit beckons. There are things to do and places to go!
How much time I have wasted because of the mess, the clutter, the disorganization, the ill health, and more! Even if those things can’t be completely eliminated from my life, as long as I make the decision to be led by the Spirit, I will be able to give those bad tendencies “a decent burial,” so to speak, and get on with what’s really important, following as God’s Spirit beckons.
This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It's adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike "What's next, Papa?"
Yes! What is next for me, Lord?
God's Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are.
And who I really am has nothing to do with trying to have a house—or a body or a schedule, for that matter—that looks like something that came from the pages of a magazine. All that stuff is so very much beside the point!
The moment we get tired in the waiting, God's Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don't know how or what to pray, it doesn't matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans.
My prayers don’t need to be perfect, I don’t have to articulate every single need just so. When I grow weary, God instead can hear my sighs and my groans—lifting me up and helping me along whether I’ve asked Him “correctly” or not!
He knows us far better than we know ourselves…and keeps us present before God.
He knows how awful I am at housekeeping, at time management, at self discipline, yet He intercedes with God on my behalf anyway. Wow!
That's why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.
Something good? Can these lifelong struggles of mine actually be turned to something good? How amazing that would be!
With God on our side like this, how can we lose? If God didn't hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing himself to the worst by sending his own Son, is there anything else he wouldn't gladly and freely do for us?
Not only is God willing to help me, He will do so gladly and freely!
Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ's love for us? There is no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture.
To that I would add …not mess, not disorganization, not poor food choices, not lack of exercise, not bad time management, and so on, as these things also seem to drive a wedge between God and me. But while they may make things cloudy on my end, they will never stop Him from pouring out His love on me! Whether I ever fully master my specific shortcomings in this lifetime or not, those shortcomings cannot prevent me from being the recipient of Christ’s abounding love. Talk about putting things in perspective!
I'm absolutely convinced that nothing—nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable—absolutely nothing can get between us and God's love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us.
Wow. He is stronger than my mess. He loves me even in the midst of my failed intentions. He wants my eyes on Him, my heart open to Him, and my life to be ready for His purposes. Nothing else really matters, because nothing can keep Him from loving me and filling me with His Spirit. Incredible. Praise God.
BE SURE TO COME BACK TOMORROW FOR THE NEXT PORTION OF THIS ESSAY.
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