Your Life is Not Your Own

Your Life is Not Your Own 

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts." Isaiah 55:8-9 NASB 

"Therefore I urge you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith. For just as we have many parts in one body and all the body’s parts do not have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually parts of one another. However, since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to use them properly: if prophecy, in proportion to one’s faith; if service, in the act of serving; or the one who teaches, in the act of teaching; or the one who exhorts, in the work of exhortation; the one who gives, with generosity; the one who is in leadership, with diligence; the one who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.

Love must be free of hypocrisy. Detest what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor, not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer, contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality.

Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. Be of the same mind toward one another; do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation. Never repay evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all people. If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all people. Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written: “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. “But if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." Romans 12 NASB 

Are you a believer who's life is day after day of trying to find an elusive happiness?

The first place to start is who are you living life for?  We are not our own, who are in Christ Jesus. 

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 NASB reminds us "Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought for a price: therefore glorify God in your body."

We cannot live in the past any more than we can design a future that's our happiness.  Most don't realize that.  Most take solace in gathering things of their past in order to create a world that used to be because the present isn't what they want it to be. 

As the saying goes "you can't go back".

Everything in Christ Jesus begins with obedience. If you are not, for any reason, then happiness isn't going to be yours to possess. 

If you are honest with yourself, are you putting conditions on God in order to serve God?

Are you wanting things like they used to be, when He’s clearly shown you that's not going to happen?  Remember the 2 trips of Israel of 40 years each in the wilderness?  Most of the time the first 40 was filled with complaints of wanting what they used to have. They may have been enslaved but they had daily essentials was their reasoning. 

Are you in a Bible believing, Bible preaching Church? Or are you avoiding that part?  That too is disobedience. Call it what you want, you're avoiding worshiping God because of not getting your own way.

We read from Isaiah and coupled with the first few verses of Romans 12 we see the need to step out in faithful obedience in order to prove the perfect will of God for us.  Forget the excuses for not obeying. 

Are you really going to stand before Jesus and say you didn't obey because He wouldn't give you what you wanted?

Our lives are in His hands.  Our Savior taught the Disciples the necessity of letting go of self in order to bring about what we see in Romans 12.

We are born with a penchant towards disobedience.  Our sin nature rarely needs an excuse to craft excuses to not do the Will of God.  We will complain that this isn't how it used to be so I don't want it. We will complain that that isn't what I want to hear so I won't go and listen. 

If God's ways are higher than ours, His thoughts than ours, and our aim in life as a believer is to become more like Christ, why my Dear Reader are you fighting God?  

If you are intentionally not going where you know He’s sending you, if you are intentionally not doing what He's put in front of you to be doing. Then you are fighting God.  You will never find happiness in your work or home life. You will seek our things from your past that used to make you happy. Then one day you will look around and see lots of things that are not making you happy and see you still are not.

Happiness and contentment begin with obedience to what God's plan is for you. 

You're not going to find it in anything or anyone else. 

As Paul wrote in Corinthians our lives are not our own. 

Are you fighting God for control of your life?  Because if you aren't doing what He's telling you to do, then you are. 

1 Timothy 6:6-7 NASB "But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world."

I have found that trusting God's plan for me has brought about more happiness than I can often handle. 

It's a "ok Jesus, whatever you want me to do, I will do" mentality. 

Remember the past, but live in the present, looking towards God's future. That's a theme from the Bible. 

We who are in Christ are in the body of Christ and have a purpose in that body. 

If you aren't doing what God's put in front of you then you aren't being a part of that body. 

Remember the guy who did nothing with what his master gave him to use while he was away?  Yeah, you're going to be in that same boat when you see Jesus.  Remember what happened to Jonah?  Yeah, sooner or later you will realize that obedience isn't optional. 

Your life is not your own when you are in Christ Jesus. Let go of your past. Stop fighting God in the present and start living for Him the way you know that you ought to because of all that He did for you. 

You may still be in a bad situation for doing all that, but then again, God is probably waiting on your obedience before He changes your situation.