What Do You Have Because You’re A Christian – Sunday Thought For The Day

Recently one Friday evening as my wife and I were driving to church, I was ruminating upon a passage of scripture I had been studying that week, when the following question literally just popped into my mind.  The question I asked myself was: What do I have because I’m a Christian? It took no time at all for me to answer myself.

Of course, I have salvation and my eternal life will be spent in heaven with God and my Savior Christ Jesus, my Lord.  But, I have something else and best of all, I have it in this life.  I have peace, joy and security.

The peace I have comes from categorically knowing that beyond any shadow of doubt, I live and walk in the presence of my God and Savior.  I have a peace that I couldn’t begin to comprehend apart from my relationship with Christ my Savior.  It’s peace – it’s the peace of God that truly passeth understanding.  Scofield explained it as: inward peace, the state of the soul of the Christian who having entered into peace with God, has committed all his anxieties to God through prayer and supplication with thanksgiving.  This peace emphasizes the quality or the nature of the peace granted.  It’s beyond my understanding, but it’s not beyond my ability to embrace.

My joy flows outward from an inner reservoir of the Holy Spirit.  Depression, worry, anxiety based upon the geo/socio-political world, what I don’t have, etc. I don’t experience.  My joy is a lightness  that stems from the indwelling Holy Spirit who truly set me free from burden of casting all my cares upon myself, government, or some other man ordained organism that I one time felt compelled to depend upon. There’s a lightness in my heart that frees me, because my joy is not based upon the culture or political outcomes.  My joy is based upon my having been redeemed by the blood of Christ.  My sins are forgiven.  I’m truly not weighted down with or by the cares of this world.  “My God hast heard my vows, [He] hast given me the heritage of those who fear [His] name.” (Psalm 61:5 KJV)

I’m secure in knowing that I will be with my Savior in heaven for all eternity.  I’m secure in knowing that every promise of God given unto those who belong to Him, He will keep.  I’m in this world, but I’m not of this world.

I have God’s immutable promise that He will never leave me nor forsake me.  I embrace that unbreakable/unchangeable promise: So that [I] may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me. (Hebrews 13:6 KJV)

What I’ve just shared are not just words.  It is my life and my being.  I praise God, because while I am not the man I want to be; Thank you God I’m no longer the man I was, without Christ.

What do you have because you are a Christian?

READ:

Psalm 63:1-8 (KJV)

1 O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is;

2 To see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary.

3 Because thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee.

4 Thus will I bless thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in thy name.

5 My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips:

6 When I remember thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night watches.

7 Because thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice.

8 My soul followeth hard after thee: thy right hand upholdeth me.