1 Corinthians 6:19-20 "Do you not know that your bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought with a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies." The NKJV adds, "...body and in your spirit, which are God's." I love that added clarity. It informs us of the deeper reality of who's we are and the total capacity of that belonging.
We live in a time when living for self is encouraged, congratulated, and of priority. Our society tells us to listen to our heart, become who we were meant to be, to the point of changing our gender, and become the opposite sex if that is what self is calling us to be. There is a ferocious battle going on in so many of us. It is not an innocuous battle either.
We are told we can have our truth, even if it's smack dab against reality. We repeatedly hear that we are evil, privileged, or incapable people, depending on our skin color. We've been forced to become disconnected from people because of a virus. We are becoming dependent on the government and its inconsistencies. The confusion is overwhelming. Is self, lord? Is the government, lord? Who do we listen to when they are offered contrasting information?
Without a North star, depression overtakes many. Sadly some contemplate or commit suicide. It is a scary time in which we live, but there is an answer of hope for those in Christ. We belong, neither to ourselves nor to the government. We belong to The Father through his Son. For those of us who have given our lives over to following Jesus, we can escape the chaos that is self and government. I'm not talking about a literal escape, but a spiritual one.
New Year's bring plans for resolutions. By the end of January, many resolutions will be forgotten for old habits. Few people will succeed at some change, primarily for self-improvement. That will not be bad, but will it impact eternity? Only you can answer that. To truly belong to Jesus and be filled with his Spirit is to turn yourself over entirely to his will and follow him with all you are. While I will offer a list of practices that bring us to the end of ourselves, I'm not attempting to add more routine to your life. My attempt to outline what it means to belong to God and walk closer to him is for each of us to put this list into practice, but not for routine sake.
To belong to God is to develop a life of prayer - Mark 1:35-37. This is a practice of communion with The Father. Prayer truly changes us and connects us to God, like many other things cannot. In Amos 7, he prayed for Israel, changing God's mind about how he would discipline them. We don't see God move the way he might want to because most of us have pathetic prayer lives. James tells us prayer is effective when righteous people practice it as a lifestyle. Wouldn't you like to experience that in 2022?
To belong to God is to walk by faith, in complete trust of His character - Psalm 103:19. Sovereignty is a characteristic of God that people refer to frequently, and I'm not always sure they understand what it means. This verse, "The Lord has established His throne in heaven, and His kingdom rules over all," is the definition. The fact that God rules is for him to be Sovereign. That tells us nothing about how he reigns but that he does reign. Studying the Bible one book at a time offers us the answer to, "how is God Sovereign?" We can learn so much about God by seeing his character through the pages of Scripture. As he opens our understanding of who he is, the more we will learn to trust him. There is nothing like the trust that develops in God as you and His Word build a relationship.
To belong to God is to meditate on His word day and night - Psalm 63:6-8; Joshua 1:8. Meditation is to develop the habit of God's presence going with you wherever you go. It is to know you have his wisdom at the ready, James 1:5-8. It is to have the answers to the questions, "what would God have me do? Where would God have me go? Should I answer? Should I be quiet? So many difficulties are made clear through meditation on God's Word. Meditation allows God to become your helper in chaos. That is not a vacuous practice. Meditation connects you with his abiding Spirit which dwells in those who belong to Him.
Those of us who are Christ's do not belong to ourselves. "We have been bought with a price, with the precious blood of Jesus Christ," Peter says. We must develop habits that reflect that purchase. Practices that don't build self more but develop our spirit in line with God's Spirit. We will see ourselves becoming new, little by little. We become dissuaded from becoming better servants of self or government. We become the servants of the Mighty God who sent his Son to live, die and rise again for the chance of us living again in His Kingdom—then impacting our world for his glory.
Becoming the person we've surrendered to Jesus to become takes sacrifice on our part. Let's do it in 2022. All the promises and resolutions we can make might help us become significant to those around us, with no eternal impact. The best changes, though, happen spiritually. Those not only change our lives but shine the light of Jesus to those around us. The key is to remember when we decide to follow Jesus; we no longer belong to ourselves. The excellent work of belonging to God begins when we grasp that reality. Our surrender to Jesus as Lord and Savior was not about going to heaven but becoming God's person, belonging to him.
Do the things that build the relationship with the God to whom you belong. He's waiting to become our helper in the chaos that is our Country. It only happens when we stop living for ourselves or complying with man. If you want to see 2022 truly develop lasting change in your life, then you must realize "you are not your own: You were bought with a price. Therefore, honor God with your bodies and in your spirit, which are God's." This surrendered life is to fulfill the will of another, not our self, and not the pleasure of our government. We live for The Father, so develop this priority relationship. We are not our own, not anymore. That is the key to spiritual and mental freedom in 2022.
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