Own It: Leaving Behind a Borrowed Faith by Hayley DiMarco & Michael DiMarco

Author:Hayley DiMarco & Michael DiMarco [DiMarco, Hayley]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, azw3
Tags: Christian Life, Spiritual Growth
Publisher: B&H Publishing Group
Published: 2013-08-14T00:00:00+00:00

True faith in Christ means giving up your faith in the world. This isn’t to say that you become disillusioned with people or your future, but that you consider yourself not of this world. Rather than a citizen of earth, you are a citizen of heaven (see Phil. 3:20), and so you are only an ambassador here, living to serve the King, and not yourself. Therefore, the best advice for you is not to get “involved in civilian life” but to live to please your commanding officer (see 2 Tim. 2:4). Don’t let the world have your faith. It will not serve you and it will not save you. But when you give up your hope in the world and all its treasures—when you let it go and instead live only for the praises of God—then and only then will your faith save you.

It must be understood now, before you go any further, that what we are talking about is a radical change to your life. Up until now you have loved and been loved by the world. But once you pay the price of worldly adoration, the world will not be happy. That’s why this is often the greatest and most feared cost. Because as Jesus says in John 15:19: “If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. However, because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of it, the world hates you.” If the world doesn’t hate you, then, according to this verse, He hasn’t chosen you out of it. Are you willing to be hated by the world? To be thought of as a freak? An idiot? A loser? If you are not, then you are still putting your faith in yourself and the world. But if God has given you the will to walk away from the stuff this world offers and even demands, then faith is yours, so grab it!

As you begin to give up the race to be your own god and instead turn your life over to the only true God, the world is going to be watching and laughing. Those who haven’t surrendered find the very act of surrender to be sheer stupidity. They have no faith in God, so letting go of your life to Him is like jumping into the deep end of the pool and refusing to swim. And that’s just how it might feel to you today. But trusting God isn’t stupidity, but purpose. You weren’t made to save yourself. You weren’t made to struggle for control, to punish yourself, to fight for your rights, or to be deceived by the world. You were made for one purpose and one purpose only: to bring glory to God and enjoy Him forever. As you go from bringing glory to yourself through all of these things, His glory shines on you. And in that glory you find the freedom you’ve longed for, for so long, and the peace that has never been yours—peace that only comes through a reconciled relationship with Jesus Christ.

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