Hidden with Christ.

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.                                                                                                                                                 Gal. 2.20

Paul makes what I consider to be a very bold statement here. He is committing himself fully and willingly to a life in Jesus. Surely this is the reality of an honest and sincere Christian life. 

In Christian practice, it is easy to be seduced and drawn into “habit living”. I can generate habits to guide and assist me in the practice of my faith. For example, I aim to start my day in God time – giving myself over to sit with Him, to commune and share relationship with my great God and loving Father. I like to begin each day in this way, but it does not always happen. On rare occasions, other issues demand my attention. I think I’m pleased that this is so. I even wonder if God deliberately raises these distractions for, in following through with these other issues, I am breaking the pattern of habit.

What I see in my Christian life, and what I sense Paul endorses for me, is the total lifestyle of living in deep, intimate and real relationship with my God and my Lord, my Maker and my Friend. I cannot live through habit, whether a single habit or a series. No, my life is in Him – my whole life, every moment, every event, every thought, word and action.

Paul says something similar to my quoted verse, in another letter: For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. (Col. 3.3) I understand that the Greek translated here as “hidden” could also suggest – in the vernacular – that I “am totally mixed up with and in Christ.” In other words, where does He end, and I begin? Or vice versa. 

How wonderful! How glorious is this! This is not habitual. This is living as the Christian ought – totally, fully, unambiguously wrapped up in Jesus. Hallelujah!

Lord Jesus, 

I salute You. Furthermore, I thank You for choosing me, for You most certainly have done so. I give myself afresh to journey with You, through this day and through all the days ahead. I dare to dream that we can go forward as one. I thank You. Lead on, please.           Amen.