100 Days of Right Believing: Daily Readings from The Power of Right Believing (26 page)

C
hrist-occupation makes you bold but not superior, humble but not inferior. When our minds are occupied with Jesus, we don’t have to
try
to be humble. In the presence of the Servant-King, our hearts become supernaturally transformed, and we will carry His servant heart. In other words, when you hang out with Jesus, all that He is will rub off on you. Your thoughts and your words will be full of the fragrance of His sweet presence and grace. All your inferiority and insecurities will melt away in His marvelous love for you. It takes people who are truly secure in Christ to be able to bow down and serve others with genuine humility.

Similarly, when you are courageous and bold in Christ and in His love for you, it doesn’t manifest as fleshly pride and arrogance, but rather as complete dependence on Almighty God. Think of how young David charged down the Valley of Elah and challenged the giant Goliath, while the rest of the well-trained and full-grown men of the army of Israel cowered in fear. Was that simply a display of youthful bravado or a genuine dependence on God?

To the untrained eye, David could have appeared like an impudent little brat. But we know where this steely chutzpah comes from when these bold words of a mere teenager resonated throughout the valley: “You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the L
ORD
of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied” (1 Sam. 17:45). From his words, we can tell that young David was clearly occupied with the Lord of hosts and not with himself or his abilities.

When your thoughts are occupied with the Lord, you become a giant slayer! Are there giants in your life today that need to be slain? Like young David, occupy your mind with the Lord, and God will fill you with the
courage and audacity to overcome all your adversities. Listen to the words of David in Psalm 18:29: “For by You I can run against a troop, by my God I can leap over a wall.” Let these words of faith and boldness be established in your heart. With God on your side, nothing is impossible!

T
he flesh in us can produce a whole gamut of emotions and thoughts, from defeat, jealousy, greed, and lust to anger, inferiority, condemnation, and arrogance. As long as we are in this physical body, the flesh is active in us.

But we can rejoice because when Jesus died on the cross, the Word of God tells us that He “condemned sin in the flesh” (Rom. 8:3). All the negative thoughts and toxic emotions from the flesh have already been judged and punished at the cross. Today we can experience victory over the flesh through the power of the cross.

You can read all about the apostle Paul’s struggle with the flesh in Romans 7:18–19: “For
I
know that in
me
(that is, in
my
flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with
me
, but how to perform what is good
I
do not find. For the good that
I
will to do,
I
do not do; but the evil
I
will not to do, that
I
practice” (emphasis mine).

Did you notice how many times the words “I,” “me,” and “my” are mentioned in just the two verses above? I’m sure you can identify with the apostle Paul here in his struggle with the flesh. It’s the struggle we all face when we are occupied with ourselves and warring with the flesh within us. It’s a life of vexation, angst, defeat, and despair.

This is not where God wants you to live, my friend. A believer doesn’t live in Romans
chapter 7
. Through Christ Jesus, we should be living in Romans
chapter 8
. Let’s read on and discover how Paul broke free from this bondage of self.

Just a few verses later, Paul cries out, “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Rom. 7:24). The answer, my friend,
is found in a
person
, and Paul tells us this person is Jesus: “I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Rom. 7:25).

Only our beautiful Savior, Jesus Christ, can deliver us from the flesh. And in Christ we can step into the first verse of Romans
chapter 8
, which proclaims, “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (
NASB
). This is where we as new covenant believers ought to live. Not in the domain of constant struggle and despair, but in the domain of no condemnation and victory.

I
encourage you to start every new day with this thought: “God loves me and gave His only Son for me. Jesus is all for me today. I am saved, healed, favored, righteous, and accepted in Christ the Beloved.”

Start your day by occupying your mind with Jesus. For a season in my life, before I even got out of bed, I would repeat to myself over and over again, “I am the righteousness of God in Christ.” Some mornings I would say it more than fifty times. I wanted it to be a revelation pulsating in my heart, an unshakable belief that God is
for
me and
with
me. When you occupy your mind with Jesus, every struggle, fear, and bondage that you are entangled with will lose its evil grasp on you!

There is a beautiful picture of Jesus hidden in the Old Testament. Under the old covenant of the law, those who sinned were told to bring a sheep that was without blemish, wrinkle, or spot to the priest. The priest does not examine the person to see if he is perfect (without sin), because he has sinned. So the priest examines the sheep.

If the sheep is indeed perfect, the person who has sinned lays his hands on the sheep in an act of transferring his sins to the innocent sheep. At the same time, the innocence and perfection of the sheep are transferred to the person. The sheep is then killed, and the person leaves with his conscience cleared and his sin debt forgiven. He walks away under an open heaven of God’s favor and blessing.

Can you see Jesus in this Old Testament practice? The sheep without blemish, spot, or wrinkle is a picture of the perfect Lamb of God, Jesus Christ Himself, who takes away the sins of the world. The priest is a picture of God. He doesn’t examine you for your sins. Instead, He examines Jesus, and because Jesus is gloriously perfect, you can live today with your conscience cleared and your sin debt forgiven. You can walk under an open heaven and expect God’s
favor and blessings in your life. What a beautiful picture of God’s abundant and lavish grace.

Today, turn your eyes away from yourself and stop the self-introspection! Look to Jesus, the Lamb of God, and see His perfection as your perfection. See His innocence as your innocence, His righteousness as your righteousness. Be occupied with Him, and be transformed from the inside out.