Eternal Life Now

Like dry, parched ground – that’s how my heart has felt lately.

image

It’s been a while since I blogged. The reason? I haven’t had much to say. I haven’t known what to write about.

Last weekend, I went to a Beth Moore conference and that’s when I realized how very parched my soul has been. I have been catching snippets of time with God, but honestly, I’ve been lazy in my pursuit of Him. During the conference, I was reminded of the magnetism of Jesus. He is relentlessly pursuing my heart, even when I’m not pursuing Him.

Beth talked about the concept of gravity, which she defined as “a force of attraction between two objects; that which pulls an object of lesser mass toward an object of greater mass.” She gave the following acronym to illustrate what she called “divine gravity” – God Revealing A Vast Intensity Toward You.

God, the far greater “mass,” is constantly pulling this lesser “mass” (me) toward Himself. How awesome is that? He doesn’t wait for me to initiate. He doesn’t demand that I meet Him halfway. His heart of vastly intense love never stops loving, never stops drawing. I am so grateful.

When I lived in a performance mindset, I was pretty disciplined in reading Scripture and in prayer. But I often did it because it was the right thing, the spiritual thing, to do.  As God is setting me free from performance-based living, I’ve wrestled with the why behind what I am called to do. If all things are lawful for me in Christ (1 Cor 6:12, 10:23), if I am fully accepted in Him regardless of what I do (Rom 8:1), then what motivates me to seek and obey God? What should compel me to “discipline myself for the purpose of godliness” (1 Tim 4:7)? I’d like to take the next few blog posts to share what I’m learning on this subject.

We often think of eternal life as something we get when we die. But in reality, eternal life begins the moment we are born again through faith in Jesus. (“And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son” 1 Jn 5:11. And “…I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” Gal 2:19-20.)

When we come to faith in Christ, we are given more than “fire insurance,” more than a key to heaven, more than a future inheritance. We are adopted into a new family, with a Father who longs to relate to us.

image

To view salvation as simply a future event would be like a street child adopted by the richest man in town, who then continues to live on the streets, content with the promise of an inheritance. Or like a prostitute wooed, loved and wed, only to continue in her former occupation, knowing her husband’s wealth will one day be hers. How short-sighted, how vastly inferior, would such a life be!

Such are our lives if we do not walk in relationship with the God who has saved us. He has revealed Himself in His Word. He has deposited His Spirit into our hearts. He has invited us to His throne room. He holds out the offer of eternal, abundant life here and now. How much we miss if we do not throw ourselves into walking with Him!

I do not have to read my Bible or pray or abide in Him to keep being His child or make Him like me. But I do have to read the Word and pray and abide in Him to experience the life that He’s given me. His Word and His presence are the Source of spiritual life and freedom. As a plant needs sun, water and food to bear fruit, so I need the Light of the World, the Giver of living water, and the Bread of life to bear spiritual fruit. I cannot produce it on my own.

If you are God’s child, you were adopted into His family for the purpose of a relationship with Him. (If you’d like to know more about becoming His child, click here.) You are vastly loved, constantly pursued, and infinitely supplied by the God who gave His life to make you His own. His Word is not a book of rules, but your very life. In His presence is fullness of joy.

So let us press on to know Him more. Let us throw off the sin that masquerades as our life. Let us persevere in this walk of faith. How? By fixing our hearts’ eyes on Jesus – the Source, Sustainer and Sanctifier of our faith (Heb 12:1-2).

If Jesus is the Source of our daily eternal life, how does that affect you in the moment-by-moment dailyness of life?