The Word I’ll Never Give Up

Daily writing promptIf you had to give up one word that you use regularly, what would it be?View all responses

There’s a word I’ll never give up. I love the sound of it. It thrills my heart and fills me with hope, encouragement, and peace. That word is the English translation of an ancient name. It’s Jesus. I ponder, say, pray, write, and post His name day and night. Why? Because I love Him because He first loved me. Jesus Christ is my best friend — a present reality who makes the impossible possible in my day-to-day life.

Matthew 5 shows how the impossible Christian life can become the normal Christian life. Christ-dependency replaces impossibility with Christ’s ability. That’s the process that the Bible calls sanctification. (1 Thessalonians 5:16-24)

To let God’s inner government (His Kingdom) rule and reign inside of us we must set aside our pride and allow God the Holy Spirit to show us our poverty of spirit so that He can be our constant inner guide. (Matthew 5:3) Then we begin to mourn over our inability to fully obey God, and we continually look to Him for forgiveness, comfort, power, and inner healing. (Matthew 5:4) We become meek and moldable to the Spirit’s inner influence. (Matthew 5:5) We hunger and thirst for God’s righteousness. (Matthew 5:6) We show mercy to others and God’s mercy fills us. (Matthew 5:7) Our heart is purified by Christ’s presence and power, and we begin to see God as a present-moment reality instead of as religiosity. (Matthew 5:8) We begin to demonstrate God’s presence and peace wherever we go and are called the children of God. (Matthew 5:9) Our Spirit-led lifestyle makes many people uncomfortable (Romans 8:14) and they begin to persecute us, insult us, and falsely speak against us because of our love for and obedience to the risen Jesus. (Matthew 5:10-11) That’s how people treated the Old Testament prophets so we can rejoice and be glad that we are following in their footsteps. (Matthew 5:12)

When we through total Christ-dependency embrace the impossible Christian life as our normal way of life we become the salt of the earth and the light of the world. It’s vital that we don’t allow persecution to cause us to lose our saltiness or hide our inner light. Instead, we need to openly shine our light by living a radiant lifestyle so that others can see our Spirit-led behavior and glorify God. (Matthew 5:13-16) The Sermon on the Mount is Christ’s call to daily depend on the Lord so that we can continually experience the impossible sanctified Christian life and mount up with wings like eagles (Isaiah 40:31) through our constant surrendering to Christ in us the hope of glory. (Colossians 1:27)

When Christ-dependency was replaced by pastor-dependency Christianity stopped relying on the presence and power of the risen Jesus and began instead to rely on human effort and human knowledge. Jesus is too often celebrated as “Savior” (an unconditional free ticket to Heaven someday) but rejected as “Lord” (the absolute Ruler, Head, and Master in daily life).

A series of two questions impacted my life more than all the other questions I have ever been asked. I wasn’t asked those two questions by a human being or by AI. They seemed to come from nowhere. One day they just popped into my mind.

The first was: “If you were born a Hindu, what would you be today?” The next one was: “Why do you think you’re a Christian?” As I thought about those two questions, I realized that my religion was based on nothing more than where I was born and raised. I was only a birthright Christian, not a true one. That led me to reject Christianity and its teachings and to become an agnostic. It led me to the place that I could encounter the risen Jesus Christ without religious indoctrination. The rest is history and testimony!

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