Day 78 – Staying Centered
Brother Lawrence discerns the difference between our wills and our emotions. “There is a great difference between the tastes and sentiments of the will and the operations of the same will, because the tastes and sentiments of the will are in the soul as in their object, and its operation, which is properly love, terminates in God as in its end.”
Sometimes we do not feel like loving God, following Christ, or obeying the Spirit. Brother Lawrence advises us not to focus on our feelings or desires for God, which go up and down, but rather upon our will. We learn to set our wills to love God.
“Lord, I don’t feel like worshiping you today. But I set my will to worship you and love you and follow you and obey you. You are God. I lift you up on the throne of my life and I choose to exalt you, feelings or not. You are the object and goal of my life, the center of my attention.”
I find it immensely helpful to stay centered on God through three affirmations: I am in Christ. Christ is in me. Christ is living his life through me.
I am in Christ. My identity is in Christ, not in what I do, how I look, what I own, who I’m connected to, or what others think or say or believe about me.
According to Ephesians 1, in Christ I am blessed (3), chosen (4), predestined (5), adopted (5), accepted (6), redeemed (7), forgiven (7), enlightened (8-9), given an inheritance (11-12), sealed (13), and assured (14).
Christ is in me. When I was born again, the Holy Spirit took me, dead in my transgressions and sins, and raised me to new life (Ephesians 2:1, 5).
Christ himself lives inside me – who I am (2 Corinthians 11:10). My body is a temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19). Christ has made my heart his home. “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me” (Galatians 2:20).
Christ is living his life through me. As I walk with God, Christ thinks through me, loves through me, speaks through me (Colossians 1:27). The living Christ grows within me, bears fruit through me, releases his personality through me (John 15:5). The Holy Spirit energizes and strengthens me for everything God calls me to be and do.
Bill Bright, founder of Cru, illustrated this: “If I am controlled and empowered by Christ, he will be walking around in my body, living his resurrection life in and through me.”
As Brother Lawrence counsels, by the action of your will, feeling or not, anchor your soul to Christ. I am in Christ. Christ is in me. Christ is living his life through me. Live from your center, loving God above all things, keeping everything else in balance.
Action Step: Major on the one affirmation you need to strengthen.
This is God’s Word for you today,
Pastor Dave
