Weekly Devotional 3-17-14 A Life That is Not Boring
It has been assumed by many of the world (non-Christians) that the life of a surrendered Christian must be very boring, but is not the measurement of their assumption their own lives? It is. Therefore, the assumption is not accurate because it is an assumption based only on that which they know. No matter how hard one might try to explain what ice cream tastes like, a person who has never tasted it cannot know how it tastes. He or she can only speculate. So it is with a non-Christian, (having never been brought into the experience of God the Holy Spirit indwelling and directing the life of the surrendered Christian), he or she can only speculate.
The life of the surrendered Christian is a Holy Spirit filled life. The Holy Spirit is constantly conforming the surrendered Christian into the image of God the Son, Jesus Christ (Romans 8:28-30 NKJV). It is His constant work, not an on and off again work, but His constant work. That alone belies a boring life because the surrendered Christian’s old nature fights against that conforming. A battle is always raging. Besides his or her old nature, the surrendered Spirit filled life is in constant battle against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places (Ephesians 6:12 NKJV). It is the Holy Spirit that fights that battle for the surrendered Christian as he or she puts on the armor of God (Ephesians 6:13-17 NKJV).
The surrendered Christian’s part in that battle is to put on the armor of God, and to walk in the power of the Holy Spirit. Writing of this the Apostle Paul wrote, “16 I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. 17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 19 Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, 21 envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. 24 And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit” (Galatians 5:16-25 NKJV).
Given these things, how could such a surrendered Christian life be boring? Besides these things the surrendered Christian life is being used of God in building his Kingdom. What is more exciting than seeing people come to know Jesus as their Savior and seeing their lives changed? The Lord’s commission to His disciples, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19 NKJV), falls to every Christian of every generation. The church is part of the Kingdom of God and it has changed and is changing the world. What could possibly be more exciting than this?
The surrendered Christian life is certainly not boring!
stevelampman@comcast.net stevelampman.com
Transforming Power: The Work of Go on Behalf of Man