New Way of Living in The Spirit

Meditations for Ragamuffins

July 18, 2023

New Way of Living in The Spirit

“And I will give them singleness of heart and put a new spirit within them. I will take away their stony, stubborn heart and give them a tender, responsive heart.”

Ezekiel 11:19

The great apologist for our faith, G.K. Chesterton, was asked by a newspaper reporter, “If the risen Christ suddenly appeared at this very moment and stood behind you, what would you do?” Chesterton responded without hesitation, “He is.” The truth of our faith is that Jesus, who walked through the streets of Jerusalem, now stands with his followers, and it is this truth that changes the way we live.

As followers of Jesus who have experienced God’s grace, we are building a new life based on our identity as a child of God. A fruit of this identity is that we are no longer living under the tyranny of emotions. Virtually all the stimuli in our culture are aimed at our emotions. When your life becomes steeped in emotional messages, your life decisions tend to become tied to your emotions or feelings. Seeking the life in Christ as our way of life is choosing to no longer live by our emotions. By faith we have reversed the flow of our life.

The normal flow of life in our emotion-driven culture is to begin with how we feel, and then make decisions or take actions based on those feelings. The result of our decisions and actions reinforces our feelings and becomes the basis of our beliefs. If we stay on this course, our emotion-driven beliefs become the facts of our life.

The world’s culture has told us a pack of lies about who we are and who God is. God, in Christ Jesus, is telling us the truth, and now we can reverse the flow of our lives. To reverse the flow is to begin first with fact, not feelings.  Begin with the fact that the Bible says God loves you. When you choose to believe this fact, you can choose to take actions based on your belief that God loves you and will provide for you.

My Takeaway: Our emotions will not immediately line up with this new way of living, but this new way of living in the Spirit will, in God’s time, win over our emotions. How? Because, like Chesterton, we know the Risen Christ is standing with us, and he has put a new spirit within us. He has taken away our stony, stubborn heart and given us a tender, responsive heart.

And all his followers say, “Thank you Jesus!”

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

 

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com.

 

Copyright © 2023 by Alex M. Knight

 

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.