A Battle to Believe

A Deadly Pandemic Part 8

Now the battle is of faith, a battle to believe.  I’m to believe, not struggle to perform.  As stated, I can’t and was never intended to perform the Divine Life.

See, I’m simply dust from the dust.  My regenerated spirit has the resurrected Son as my life.  I was resurrected when He was resurrected.  As with everything, God had to solve the problem of me.

So this is a work of faith not practicality, but there is a practical part to it found in Luke 9:23 NLT.

“Then Jesus said to them all, ‘If anyone wants to follow Me,
he must give up himself and his own desires. He must take up his cross everyday and follow Me.’”

Facing the Mirror

SO if I’m resurrected with a new nature, then why do I struggle so continually?  I might think that the choice is made in the morning, but there in the next moment is my ENTITLEMENT staring me in the face.

Why? Because I oppose God in me.  Entitlement is not a force – I am!  My old Adamic nature is the one that stands in direct opposition to the Life of the Son.  It’s my nature.  So, will I ever rise a day without seeing the entitled ME in the mirror?

Though Christ offers the Solution as a gift, His choice does not alleviate mine.  I have to daily choose to lay Entitlement in the grave and follow Christ.

Without death there is no resurrection. The Life of Christ rises on the smoldering ashes of my grave. Relationally, I have to choose in Whose life I will walk.  It’s not a choice of finality, for any day I wish to let my entitled-self rise, I can.  I must DENY myself, and actively TAKE UP my cross.  It’s not passive; it is an active work. Then I will see the evidence of this scripture, “For to me to live is Christ” (Phil. 1:21).

I AM the Creator

In Job 38:4 & 7, God says,

“Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?
Tell Me, if you have understanding?

When the morning star sang together
And all the sons of God shouted for joy?”

To this I can only answer as Job, “I sit in dust and ashes and repent” (Job 42:6b). Yes, I am but dust.

God is GOD

“Where were you?” The entitled one has no answer!

The Life of the resurrected Son was present when the foundations of the earth were being laid.  He knew our form before we were knit in our mother’s womb.  The entitled one has no rights, deserves and is ENTITLED to nothing.

All that is, is for the Son.  He’s entitled to everything. He deserves and has rights to the whole lot.

My consistent struggle to own is ended in my death.  The freedom from my wrestling is found only in “Christ in me, the hope of my glory” (Colossians 1:27).  When Christ lives as me, then I will see His glory.

Though entitlement is the bane of the old nature’s existence, there’s a blessing in His Lordship and a gift in His Sovereignty.

“And He died for all, so that all those who live might live no longer to and for themselves, but to and for Him
Who died and was raised again for their sake.”
2 Cor. 5:15

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