But if God himself has taken up residence in your life, you can hardly be thinking more of yourself than of him. Anyone, of course, who has not welcomed this invisible but clearly present God, the Spirit of Christ, won’t know what we’re talking about. But for you who welcome him, in whom he dwells—even though you still experience all the limitations of sin—you yourself experience life on God’s terms.
It stands to reason, doesn’t it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, he’ll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to himself? When God lives and breathes in you (and he does, as surely as he did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With his Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ’s!
Scripture quotations from The Message. © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress, Colorado Springs, CO. All rights reserved.
I am still in the process of reading/studying Ann Voskamp’s book, One Thousand Gifts**. Voskamp maintains that the core of our relationship with God begins with a heart of gratitude. In fact, she cites another author, Brennan Manning, who wrote Ruthless Truth: The Ragamuffin's Path to God**. Manning says that “The foremost quality of a trusting disciple is gratefulness.”
So when we think of God living and breathing in us and delivering us from a dead life of sin and all of its burdens and destructiveness, how can we be anything BUT grateful? The greatest gift we will ever receive is Salvation through the blood of Jesus. The best friend and companion we will ever have is the Holy Spirit. The most wonderful, generous, gracious, merciful, loving and forgiving Father we could ever ask for is God Almighty. We are blessed beyond measure! We are loved beyond description! We are rich beyond our wildest dreams! But are we grateful?
Do we fully embrace this tremendous blessing and gift? Are we filled with gratitude for all that God has done for us? Do we really live in a way that demonstrates that God lives and breathes in us and delivered us from a dead life? Are we truly thankful…and does it show? God’s abundant gift of New Life in Christ…His deliverance from the death of sin…His residence in our lives…is available to any and all who welcome Him. But here’s the thing…are we living in a way that makes others want this for themselves?
Do we demonstrate the life of a trusting disciple? Are we filled with gratitude and “life” so abundantly that others say, “I’ll have what he/she has!” in their own lives? Isn’t it time we did? What are you waiting for? What must happen in order for you to fully experience a heart of gratefulness and fully embrace all that God has for you? Will this be the day you begin to find out? Don’t you think it should be?
©2014 Debbie Robus
* One Thousand Gifts ~ ©2010 Ann Morton Voskamp ~ One Zondervan Press ~ www.zondervan.com
**Ruthless Truth: The Ragamuffin's Path to God ~ ©2000 Brennan Manning ~ HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., New York, NY.
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