Do you want to feel alive? Do you want to be alive? Are you looking for a reason to look forward to tomorrow? Are you willing to give everything up to gain more than you can imagine?
There are many people who long to feel alive. They are looking for a continual mountain top experience. Unfortunately, they think it is possible to be on top at all times. Yet, that isn’t true. We go through peaks and valleys throughout our lives.
It is because of those peaks and valleys that we know we are alive. It is the changes in our emotions and feelings that we are reminded we are alive. We also experience physical ailments and a high level of physical condition. Whether we are sick or just complete a particularly dauting physical challenge we are reminded we are alive.
Unfortunately, many people don’t recognize indicators of life. They are so caught up in their wants they can’t see the life they are experiencing. Our lives are a continually changing experience of events, a constant reminder that we live. Yet, what if there is more?
We are promised more. We are promised to live forever in the presence of God, when we are willing to give up our lives here and now, the lives of constantly seeking our wants rather than God’s wants.
Paul is not advocating dying physically but giving up all worldly trappings. He states our obligation is to live as God has called us, not as the world would have us live. Rather than chasing after endless worldly possessions, we are to seek what God has in store for us.
There is no doubt following God’s desire for us is hard. However, it is only hard because we are unwilling to give up our own desires. Yet when we do, we gain far more than we lose. It is too bad that we act like the child who has a piece of candy in his hand and won’t give it up to gain the bag that is held behind the parent’s back.
We can’t see the end and that disturbs us. We don’t know the rest of the story, so we worry about today. God knows all that He has in store for us, much like the parent who knows what they bought for their child for Christmas. Ultimately, we gain an eternity of bliss.
I pray we all decide to give up our worldly desires to accept God’s desires. I pray we seek God’s plan for us. I pray each of us will take one step at a time toward doing God’s will for us. Give up the desires of the world. Seek God’s plan for you. Follow the lead of the Holy Spirit. Know the difference between your desires and the Spirit’s leading. Become alive in the Spirit.
Romans 8:12-13 Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.
Marty Pressey 