Romans 8:5
Okay, this will be more of a thought blurb than an actual in-depth study since I have two constraints on me right now: I'm sitting in the highly air-conditioned B&N store, wearing capris and sandals, and my laptop, with it's rapidly dying battery, is not plugged in. So here we go, rapidly chewing on biblical fat!
This verse speaks to me about how humans work. In a sense. I think the bible illustrates a similar concept in another verse that says: For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also (Matthew 6:21). If we desire something, that is what we naturally begin to gravitate towards in our lives. If it's money, we start living our lives in such a way as to accrue as much of it as possible, whether that means scrooge saving or taking someone else's. And notice, we gravitate, not immediately become the thing that we desire. We humans are always in a state of change. Even if it's just that time passes, but everything else about our state of living stays the same, we are still not the same.
It's in our nature to be continually transformed, to be conformed to the image of something that we hope goes beyond the limitations of who we already are. Part of this implies then that we do not fully become what we are to be in this lifetime. If we're always in process of changing, we are still incomplete.
I speak as a Christian when I say, we only fully become what we are when we die. Either, through the saving works of Jesus Christ, we become the stainless, transformed spiritual beings that we were made to be by God and reside with Him rightly and always, or we reach our full height of condemnation and rebellion against God and throw ourselves into an eternal hell in which wrath, hatred and deep emptiness consume us forever.
We are still incomplete in this life, meaning that the life we live in our bodies count. What we do in this life directly effects our eternal destiny and the eternal destiny of the people in our lives.
Thank you God for even the time that you graciously give us in this life, that you have delayed the judgement of our souls that we might come to know who Christ is and return to you in total repentance.
I pray not to be paralyzed by fear in this life, but to go forth and live in full confidence in God. My God, my friend, my maker, the one who resides in my heart.
