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Christ Exalted in Me

by Jerry Ousley  
2/13/2015 / Christian Living


A few years ago I took a job. At that time I already had a job and had worked there for some time. I had grown tired of the work I was doing and then finding new employment was easy. What I thought to be an opportunity to do something I really enjoyed came up and to make a long story short I took it. The first year there was great. It was exactly what I wanted. The hours were good and the pay was good. I enjoyed working with the people and I was given free rein to do what I needed to do.

The second year wasn't quite so good. The economy had taken its plunge and suddenly, after years of being able to quit a position and find another one in only a matter of days, the job market had frozen solid. Many of you know exactly what I'm talking about.

The situation changed drastically. Now, instead of being able to get all the hours I wanted I was faced with reduced hours. We still had to get the same work out the door but in less time and for less pay. New restrictions were placed on all the employees and now we worked day to day wondering if each would be our last. But there was no other choice. We were owned by the company and basically had to do what we were told. If we refused there were hundreds, maybe thousands of people waiting in line to replace us. What a predicament! As I said, many of you have experienced this exact thing.

After a few months of this a turn of events found me without a job and God allowed me to begin making a living on my own utilizing the skills I had learned over the years. But I was lucky (if you believe in luck actually God orchestrates our lives). The point is however, for seven months I was owned by the company and it didn't feel good!

But we can be owned by Christ which is the exact opposite. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 6:19, "Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?" Those who have come to Christ in salvation belong to God. We now have a duty to allow Christ to be exalted in us.

To be a successful Christian we must be committed to Him. The height of that commitment is to realize that we are now owned by the Lord and we no longer belong to ourselves. We now have a duty to allow Christ to live in us. We still have our free will. We can choose to rebel against Him and suppress His presence in us. But we will not be a successful, victorious believer if we do.

Christ is in us by way of the Holy Spirit. When we accept Him as our Savior then the Spirit takes up abode in our lives. We now have a duty to live for God. Many have put strict interpretations on this. Some have tried to tell us what we are allowed to wear, how we must style our hair and so forth. Others tell us that we must protect our bodies and take care of them because they belong to the Lord. While it is true by the scripture that our bodies now belong to Christ, many have gone to the extreme when it comes to our health. I believe we should take care of ourselves but we should also have the same attitude of Paul in the matter. When speaking of physical exercise he mentioned it only in passing by saying that bodily exercise profits us some (a little see 1 Timothy 4:8). But that's all he said. Entire ministries have formed around this. I'm not knocking exercise and proper diet; but our main focus should be on exalting Christ within us, not building our bodies into beautiful physiques.

There's only one way to allow Christ to be exalted in us. It is not in caring for the body and spending all our resources on it to make it beautiful. It is only in listening to the Holy Spirit within us; reading God's word, applying it to our lives, and serving Him by living His example. When we do these things sometimes He may speak to us of physical things. If He does, listen to Him. But if not, remember that spiritual health is far more important than physical health. This body will soon return to dust and fade away. But our souls are eternal. Use them to let Christ be exalted in you.

Jerry D. Ousley is the author of ?Soul Challenge?, ?Soul Journey?, ?Ordeal?, ?The Spirit Bread Daily Devotional and his first novel ?The Shoe Tree.? Visit our website at spiritbread.com to download these and more completely free of charge.

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