A life-and-death matter

If by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. – Romans 8:13

Nature is violent. Life and death are the law of field, stream, and jungle. A lion stalks a gazelle. A heron stands motionless a the edge of a pond, its sharp beak poised and ready to kill. High overhead a red-tailed hawk holds its deadly talons close to its body, watching for movement in the grass below. A leopard family exists at a zebra’s expense. Each survives on another’s demise. This sounds natural enough, but it’s more graphic than most of us care to watch.

The principle that nothing lives unless something else dies extends beyond nature to our daily walk with God. Interests of the flesh must succumb to the interests of the Spirit, or else the interests of the Spirit will succumb to the interests of the flesh (ROMANS 8:13). In the jungles and fields and streams of our own heart, something must always die so that something else can live.

We can’t be committed to Christ and to the world at the same time. We can’t be filled with His Spirit if we are protecting the life of selfish interests. That’s why our Lord said so pointedly that we will need to die daily to ourselves if we are going to walk with Him (LUKE 9:23-24). We must continually choose what will have to die so that Christ can live freely in us. – Martin De Haan II

Is there any life so blessed

As one lived for Christ alone,

When the heart from self is emptied,

And instead becomes His throne? – Anon

READ: ROMANS 8:12-18

To live for Christ, we must die to self.