Monday, October 7, 2013 [Life from HIS Perspective]
Colossians 3:1-5, MSG
3 1-2 So if you're serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it. Pursue the things over which Christ presides. Don't shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ—that's where the action is. See things from his perspective.
3-4 Your old life is dead. Your new life, which is your real life—even though invisible to spectators—is with Christ in God. He is your life. When Christ (your real life, remember) shows up again on this earth, you'll show up, too—the real you, the glorious you. Meanwhile, be content with obscurity, like Christ.
5-8 And that means killing off everything connected with that way of death: sexual promiscuity, impurity, lust, doing whatever you feel like whenever you feel like it, and grabbing whatever attracts your fancy. That's a life shaped by things and feelings instead of by God. (The Message)
In a relationship, two people walk together and share life with one another. It is incredibly difficult – nearly impossible, even – for two people who are on completely different pages in life to do this. "Do two walk together unless they have agreed to do so?" (Amos 3:3, NIV)
I encountered this question after I had a life changing experience with Christ in college. Having returned from Atlanta and talked to all of my friends about what Jesus had done for me, within days I had no one to talk to anymore. No one returned my phone calls – we weren't "walking together" anymore. It was deeply hurt and discouraged, but I began to realize that if we were going to walk together, we had to agree on where we were going. I loved my friends, but Christ had saved my life! My new life dictated where I would walk (where life is headed).
When I think about how Jesus walked on this earth, I realize that He didn't always go where He wanted to go. Especially, when considering dying on the cross, Jesus pleaded with God, saying, "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done" (Luke 22:42, NIV). Jesus agonized over the pain that He would have to endure, but His love for the Father, and for us, forced Him to make a decision. If He hadn't chosen to submit Himself to death, He would no longer have been able to walk with the Father, whom He loved. But also, had He not died, we never would have had the opportunity to walk with Him and enjoy the relationship with the Father and the Holy Spirit that He enjoyed. Like Jesus, my new life must dictate how I walk, also (how life is lived).
These are choices that we make each and every day. How in the world do we do this?
"Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ—that's where the action is. See things from his perspective" (3:2).
Lord, God, give us Your eyes that we might see what is going on around Christ. Help us submit ourselves to You that we would see things from Your perspective.
No comments:
Post a Comment