The Promise

The Bible doesn't promise a life free of pain, difficulty, or loss. It does promise (to those of us who believe in Christ) that we will have a Companion along the journey to help, encourage, and strengthen us in whatever may come our way. The Promise:

"I will never leave you nor forsake you." So we may boldly say: "The Lord is my helper, I will not fear. What can man do to me?" (Hebrews 13:5-6).

He is the One who is our Sanctuary - In order to live a life that is an exclamation point in a world of question marks. If you know Christ, let Him build the hope of His presence into your life-experience.

If you have not given your life to Christ, you know this world can be a place of extreme difficulty and struggle. The good news is that we don't have to face it alone. Jesus Christ came into the world to restore our broken relationship with God and to give us lives of purpose and meaning, both now and forever. In the book of John (3:16) the apostle writes:

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."

By accepting God's love and forgiveness, we will enter into a new relationship with Christ. He is the only help and hope we need for life - and for eternity.

In his book The Purpose Driven Life, Rick Warren asks the question: What on earth am I here for? We are not an accident. Even before the universe was created, God had us in mind, and He planned us for His purposes. We were made to last forever!

Living a New Life

In Galatians 5: 16, 24 the apostle Paul advises all mankind to live in the Holy Spirit. Living in the Holy Spirit keeps you from doing what your sinful nature craves. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful natures to His cross and crucified them there.

When a man or woman gets married, he or she embarks on a new life. Later when they retire, they start another new life. Should one of them lose their spouse, he or she begins all over again. Life is all about changes, challenges and choices.

The more drastic changes in life, such as marriage, retirement, bereavement or relocation (The Stuart Family) call for far-reaching adjustments. But none is as far-reaching as the change that takes place when an individual commits his life to Christ.

Paul describes this as “new life in the Holy Spirit” and calls the believer to live accordingly (Gal. 5:16). The fundamental difference in such a new life is described as no longer “doing what your sinful nature craves,” but living now by the Holy Spirit (5: 16). This involves following “the Holy Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives” (5:25). Two options are clearly presented – following a “sinful nature {that} loves to do evil” (5:17), or living in such a way that “the Holy Spirit controls our lives” (5:22).

New believers are often surprised to discover, after the initial joy of committing their lives to Christ has worn down a little, how we all struggle to live a new life. The expectation is that everything would be fresh, new and wonderful and that we would somehow be transported into a new kind of stratospheric spirituality—free from pain, struggle, worry or defeat. This is when we must learn to trust God and develop faith in His magnificent Word. We need to learn that even though we are now in Christ, the two "forces”—the sinful nature and the Holy Spirit—“ are constantly at war fighting each other, and your choices are never free from this conflict”(5:17).

Sometimes this may seem discouraging. Believers need to remember that we are not impotent in the midst of this struggle. We will always have the freedom and the power to choose whether we will be dominated by the sinful nature or be led by the Spirit of God. We are required to make this choice—or more accurately, continue to make choices... and make the right choice.

To choose to “follow the Holy Spirit’s leading” includes recognizing that we are saying YES to Christ; as believers we are saying no to the sins for which Christ died. Jesus has “nailed the passions and desires of [the] sinful nature” to the cross, and he continues to say no to them (5:24). At the same time, he says YES to the gracious working of the indwelling Holy Spirit. As he does this, he finds he’s living a new life—a rich full life, a life that honors GOD and blesses all people. We must all continue to live a new life for Christ.