Dying to Live

Ezekiel 37:25 They will live in the land I gave to my servant Jacob...and David my servant will be their prince forever.

This promise is in the midst of a larger passage which begins with the vision of the valley of dry bones. In chapter 37 God expresses His heart by describing what He will do for His people and how He will show His love for them.

Ezekiel 37
v.14 I will put My Spirit in you and you will live
v.23 I will save them...and I will cleanse them
v.26 I will make a covenant of peace with them
v.27 My dwelling place will be with them

Now, to the Jewish people living when Ezekiel spoke these words of encouragement, the promises meant leaving the land of captivity when time was fulfilled and returning to the geographical location that they had been removed from. And when that happened just as God had promised, the Hebrews, as well as the nations around them learned "that I the Lord make Israel holy" (v.28)

The promises in the Scriptures are for us today, as well. After Ezekiel spoke them to the people around him and the events took place as promised in the natural world, the scriptural record of it gives us confidence when we read it that God can and will complete His promises again in our lives, this time in our hearts and minds, our souls and spirits.

The land that God gave Jacob was called Israel. Jacob himself was renamed Israel by God. After he spent the night wrestling with the angel of God and prevailed, he was given the new name to celebrate the change in his nature. The schemer and supplanter, Jacob, changed to Israel, one who prevails with God.

Genesis 32.28 Then the man said, "Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome."

We, too, have struggles within ourselves. We fight to overcome our own nature as we seek to obey God. Our heavenly Father knows what we struggle against and He says "I will put My Spirit in you and you will live." We can change from the self-centered perspective where the universe centers around ourselves to the Christ-centered point of view where we follow the Lord's lead and serve.

Psalms 116
v.15 Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.
v.16 O Lord, truly I am Your servant...You have freed me from my chains.

Dying to ourselves, crucifying our old nature, simply saying "No!" to the desires and appetites for things and status, rejecting the habits of how we think and react, always looking to God, daily seeking through His Word, asking continually until we receive the strength and understanding and vision to defeat the persistent challenges our minds and bodies throw against our attempts to walk in obedience to the Spirit of God -- that, also, is the death that the Lord holds as precious. Our choice to follow Him, our walking out, day by day, moment by moment, practicing His presence, drawing strength from the Word, the Spirit, and the Body, honors the Father as we choose the gifts He has paid for us to have.

Now, too often, after we have started well, we find it easy to move into a set of rules that guide us. It is, after all, easier to remember to do certain things than to always turn our eyes back to God and ask Him what His heart is. Legalism lets us run on automatic and focus our attention on things we enjoy around us rather than letting them go, giving our time and attention to God and asking each day, "How do You want me to walk out Your will today?"

James 1:27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

Micah 6.8 He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

Luke 10
v.27 He answered, “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.' ”
v.28 “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”

God makes it simple: Stay off the throne. Don't be self-centered. Love God and express His love to those He brings to us. Be a clay vessel carrying His treasure to pour out into others' lives. But just like keeping tabs on a quick, quiet three-year-old who is determined to go where we have said not to go, we have to constantly watch or we'll find our nature trying to climb back up where we don't belong.

Father God, thank You for giving us Your Son, Jesus, who like David, the shepherd, cares for us, gave Himself for us, and constantly intercedes for us. Our confidence and trust is in You, Lord, that You will work out Your plan in our lives. Help us to be wise about the things of God and simple-hearted in our trust of You, for You have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, and my feet from stumbling, that I may walk before you Lord, in the land of the living. I will call upon You as long as I live.

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