Sisters in Christ, To Whom do we belong?
I have read so many articles, blog posts and Facebook
conversations this past week about that movie. You know which one I’m talking
about. No need to get into that hot mess.
But the whole topic has been weighing on me, and as I read a
couple of articles this morning, I felt God impress something on my heart…about
how it’s really not about the movie… at all.
People everywhere, Christian and not, have been debating
back and forth and airing their opinions about why you should or why you
shouldn’t see this film. But I think in the midst of it all, we’re just asking
the wrong question. No matter
which side of the line you find yourself on, I think the question we need to be
asking ourselves is, “to whom do I belong?” Because today the
topic of conversation revolves around this movie, tomorrow it’ll revolve around
something else, but that question at the root of all the debates and all the
opinions will still be the same. “To whom do I belong?”
Many people today will tell us that we are our own; that “I
belong to me!” We can call the shots, make our own decisions and judge for
ourselves what is “right” and what is “wrong”. We have free will to be, do, say
and see what we want. And we do.
And let me just get real honest here for a second. There are
many, many times in my life when I want to call all the shots. After all, I am
human and I think that is the choice we most naturally gravitate towards. There
are so many times when I think I know better than God, and when I want to just
do what I want. So, is there a part of me that wants to read the books? Yes. Is
there a part of me that wants to see the movie? Yes. Is there a part of me that
often wants to do countless other things that society tells me is permissible, fun,
normal, etc? Of course; but that is not the part that controls me.
I have made a choice to belong to someone else.
When I made the choice to surrender my life to Christ, I
surrendered to the fact that I was no longer my own. My old self, with my old desires,
and my ego were put to death. And now, it is no longer what is central in my
life. Instead, I identify with Christ, and the life that you see, is Him living
in me! (Galatians 2:20) If that is the
identity that I now claim, and if I truly believe that I have become a new
creation in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17), then I have to let those old things fall to the wayside. I have to choose
on a daily basis, to deny myself and follow Christ. He is in charge, not me. (Luke
9:23)
This does not by any means equate to perfection. You know as
well as I do, that it means quite the opposite actually! I struggle and I fight
the urge to let those old habits, old desires and old ways of thinking take
over. But at the end of the day, I know whom I belong to. I belong to Christ!
When we decide to answer that one single question, in light
of what Christ has done and what He asks of us as His followers, every
single thing changes. We no longer
become concerned with what pleases us, we are concerned with what pleases HIM. We are no longer worried about
what we’ll be missing out on if we say “no”, but we will be worried with how
our Jesus hurts when we compromise. We will stop freely letting our old selves
control what we say, do, and see, but we will start submitting every area to
the Lordship of Jesus Christ. So sisters, let’s change the questions in our
lives, and start living like we know exactly to whom we belong.
