Psalms 37:35-37: I myself have seen it happen: a proud and evil man, towering like a cedar of Lebanon, but when I looked again, he was gone! I searched but could not find him! But the good man—what a different story! For the good man—the blameless, the upright, the man of peace—he has a wonderful future ahead of him. For him there is a happy ending.
As a believer in Christ, do you concern yourself with knowing and obeying the principles contained in God’s Word? When we come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, He delivers us from the sin nature, but we are the ones who must choose to live according to His commands. He desires, and even commands, that we live according to His will so that He will be able to bless us.
If you find that obeying the Word of God is burdensome or laborious, but in your heart you love God and seek to please Him by your faith, then you may need to have your mind renewed. It’s very true that God desires for His children to prosper and live in His peace. It’s also a fact that we have an adversary who doesn’t want us to know God in the same way that Jesus does.
In order to renew your mind to think like Jesus thinks, you must first develop a hunger for the Word of God. The Word of God is the only source on earth that has the power to renew our minds so that we are able to see as God sees and to think as He thinks. Before we follow instructions, don’t we first need to know what they are? The psalmist wrote that a blameless, upright person who seeks peace has a wonderful future ahead of them. Don’t you desire to enjoy a wonderful future? If so, then we must become willing to know the Word of God and have our minds renewed by the Word so that we may inherit the promises of God through obedient faith.
Christians tend to blame their problems on Satan, but—for the most part—he only preys on our spiritual ignorance. It’s our responsibility to use the power of the Word and the Holy Spirit within us to crucify self and form a hunger to know and walk in the Word. We all have a choice to make once we become a Christian. We can live our new life in bondage to the flesh, or we can live it in victory over our flesh by choosing to live by faith in God’s Word. Paul tells us in Romans 8 that those who choose to live in the power of the flesh can’t please God, but those who—through the Holy Spirit—crucify the flesh nature will please the Lord.
If your sin nature has you feeling like you’re a victim of circumstances instead of being more than a conqueror in Christ, then you will need to get in the Word and remain there until your mind becomes renewed. God never told us to “TRY JESUS.” The Word tells us to ABIDE IN CHRIST as His children. God wants us all to have a bright future, but it will only happen if we abide in Christ through faith and obedience. —submitted by Asa Dockery, US
