Saturday, June 29, 2024
“God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord” (1 Corinthians 1:9 KJV).
In this roller coaster called “life,” who is truly “faithful?”
“Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths” (Proverbs 3:5,6). “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (Romans 12:1,2).
“There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace” (Romans 8:1-7).
Once, I gave a Christian some Bible verses to navigate his perplexing (!) struggles. His answer to those Scriptures was, “But my human mind cannot fathom that.” My swift answer was, “We are not using the human mind but God’s mind.” See, he inadvertently declared his fundamental problem by echoing the Corinthians (or the ancient Greek philosophers, lovers of human wisdom). His primary difficulty was unbelief… and, yet, he was a member of the Body of Christ. The roller-coaster of life had driven him to trust in his own resources, his own intellect, instead of the renewed mind the Holy Spirit offers us….
333 Words of Grace 