We cannot expect to live with Christ unless we are willing to die with Him first.
This truth is hard to swallow. It is one that I wish I could gloss over while reading my Bible, never allowing the weight of it to sink in. Of course, I desire to live with Christ, to share in His glory and experience the fullness of joy that He promises when we enter into fellowship with Him. But dying with Him… that part of the promise doesn’t exactly elicit the same excitement.
Romans 6:4 speaks to this dichotomous reality. “Sharing in his death by our baptism means that we were co-buried and entombed with him, so that when the Father’s glory raised Christ from the dead, we were also raised with him. We have been co-resurrected with him so that we could be empowered to walk in the freshness of new life” (Romans 6:4 TPT). I was recently blessed to experience this divine exchange take place in my own over the past year. Through the hardship of an unforeseen broken relationship, the Lord taught me firsthand what it means to participate in His death – to choose to surrender all control and place my trust only in His sovereign leadership. Very honestly, this dying to myself was a painful process. It hurt to lay down the reigns of control that I attempted to hold in clenched fists. I knew the Lord wanted to change the posture of my heart. He wanted me to leave behind my familiar posture of grasping, striving, and controlling, and exchange it to reflect His posture of arms wide open – a posture of trust, surrender and freedom.
Just as attempting a new stretch can cause soreness in the stiff areas of the body, changing my heart posture felt awkward and painful most days as I learned to flex spiritual muscles that had been long neglected or undiscovered. But in the midst of my discomfort, I found that what I received by opening my hands and my heart to the Lord far outweighed the pain of letting go of my perceived control. By surrendering my life and participating in His death by letting my plans go, I received the resurrection power of Christ and the new, abundant life He had been offering to me all along. I could not know the true depth of His strength until I trusted Him enough to give up my own.
As we move into 2019, I pray that you would experience the beautiful truth of Romans 6:4 firsthand in your own life. In what way is the Lord calling you to exchange your strength for His? As you pray into this question specifically and strategically, the Lord will make His desires known to you. It’s so easy to keep moving forward in our own ways at our own pace, simply because it is all we have ever known. But when we break our stride and take some time to seek the Lord, He is faithful to speak into our lives. Ask Him how He wants to change your posture this year – physically, mentally, and spiritually. Do not be afraid to die with Him, my friend. His arms are outstretched with new life. I cannot promise you it will be comfortable, but I DO promise you it will be worth it.