In those days you were
living apart from Christ. You were excluded from citizenship among the people
of Israel, and you did not know the covenant promises God had made to them. You
lived in this world without God and without hope (Ephesians 2:12 NLT).
Although it has been 32 years since I became a believer, I
can vividly remember the feeling of loneliness and hopelessness in my life
without God. I didn’t realize that I had
been given an inheritance of wealth, position, and privilege in Heaven, so I
sought those things on earth. I didn’t
realize that I was created to belong to God, so I kept searching for my place
to belong on earth. I didn’t realize
that I had a purpose that was divinely engineered to fit who I was and what I
could do, so I kept trying to find what would make me “happy,” all the while
becoming more and more miserable. I
didn’t realize that my imagination and creativity were designed for the
heavenly realm, so I kept my ideas and efforts earth-bound, rather than setting
them towards Heavenly goals. I didn’t
realize that I had a God and King who would rectify every wrong done on earth,
so I kept trying to do it myself and ended up fighting a losing battle, which
led to numbing myself with alcohol and drugs to escape the injustices I
couldn’t change. I didn’t realize that
everything I was doing was because I was searching for a peace that the world
did not have.
As I think back on the world from which God delivered me, I
realize that I was snatched from that world, but it was not the physical world
in which I lived. When I gave my life to
Christ, I did not leave planet earth. It was the world between my ears that God
saved me from – the world of my mind, which in turn determined my decisions. I was given the key to change everything that had
been leading me in the wrong direction and it came through one simple
instruction:
Don’t copy the
behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person
by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you,
which is good and pleasing and perfect (Romans 12:2 NLT).
I have not left the world in which I met Christ, but I have
left the mindset in which I met Him.
Instead of trying to come up with solutions to unresolved earthly
issues, I spend my time meditating on those things that are profitable:
And now, dear brothers
and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable,
and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are
excellent and worthy of praise. Keep
putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard
from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you (Philippians
4:8-9 NLT).
Today, I will set my mind on Heaven, walk in what I’ve
learned from Jesus, and find the peace my soul not only craves but needs to be
whole.
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