Many people today go through life only existing. Why is that? What have they lost or what did they never have, that would put them in such a state?
We experience this lack of life when we haven’t truly given Christ our all. You say, “I know He’s in control. He created everything, and since He did, He’s got to have me in His hand. But, why do I feel so far from Him? Why do I feel so empty, without the hope I know I should have?”
Galatians 2:20 says we were crucified with Christ, nevertheless we live; yet not us but Christ lives in us! Paul was saying that Christ is our life. That’s why we can walk out the time here on earth with true joy!
The life yielded to Christ is full in every sense of the word.
- Full in joy,
- full in gratefulness,
- full in hope,
- full in enthusiasm,
- full with LIFE–all of life.
Yes, there will be sorrow. Yes, there will be trials, times when things are difficult. But does that mean that God is not still on His throne? No, a thousand times “No!” Emphatically, “No!!” God has not lost His touch. God has not lost His caring. God has not left us to our own devices. We have His Spirit within us to give us life–a capacity to live beyond existence, beyond self-centeredness.
Does this mean that if we once yield our all to Christ we won’t have to worry about sin anymore? No, that’s not the case. In his book, If I Perish, I Perish, Ian Thomas says, “The godliest of people still have lurking within them the most terrible potential for evil [the flesh]. It is the godliest people who know it best. And it is the acknowledgement of that very fact that is the secret to their godliness. They learned long ago, and often by bitter experience, that character does not change for the better by improving the self-life, but rather by allowing it to be replaced by the Holy Spirit”–the Christ-life.
Micah 6:8 gives us a concise picture of what God expects of His people. We are told to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with Him. The justice and mercy we can grasp pretty well, but what does it mean to walk with Him in humility?
Humility is often called meekness in the Bible. But today, meekness is usually equated to weakness. Yet, the Bible says that Moses was the meekest man on earth (Num. 12:3). Now, you don’t lead a million plus people through the wilderness for forty years and be a weakling. What does it mean that Moses was meek?
The last ten years we lived in New Orleans, we had the privilege of doing a live Nativity scene at City Park where 100,000 people a week go to see the lights at Christmas time. In one of the gardens, we had the usual characters plus live sheep, a donkey and occasionally a calf. After our performances each night, my boys and I loaded the animals into our pickup and took them to the stable where they were housed. Once we had them in their stalls, fed them and got them settled for the night, we wandered around, looking at the beautiful horses that were there as well.
One night there was a horse named Mr. Cooper standing in his stall. He was a huge animal. His back was about eye level with me (I’m 6’2″), his chest was massive; I could walk under his chin without even touching it. There is no way anyone could control that animal unless he allowed it. But he let his rider direct his every action–when to go, where to go, how fast, when to turn, when to stop. Everything was under the direction of his rider–with Mr. Cooper’s yieldedness, of course.
That was the picture of Moses in the Old Testament. He yielded himself to God for His direction. Everything Moses did, every move he made, was based on God’s plan and purpose for his life.
We are called on to do the same thing–only we have the advantage of having our director within us. Christ’s very life is our life–if we will allow Him to have that place by yielding ourselves to Him.
Our yieldedness–yieldedness to the life of Christ in us, makes all the difference in the world as to whether we are living or just existing!
Bill and Toni Morgan serve as lead counselors at Faith Family Ministries based in South Carolina. This article is from their monthly publication, The InnKeeper (used with permission). ffm@faithfamily.net www.Faithfamily.net