July 1 - Living Death or Dying Life

Our enemy loves to take us out of commission in the Lord’s army and his strategy has been turning our lives into living deaths. While living physically, we live and move but do not have our being. Many Christians are like bodies without a soul, like walking corpses. Satan’s attacks and intimidations are aiming at taking away or weakening our spiritual lives so that we can hardly fight the battle.

King David described such condition as he pleaded with God for mercy and help. In his state of unrighteousness, he allowed his enemies to pursue his soul, his life had been crushed to the ground. Sitting in darkness like those long dead, his spirit fainted and his heart appalled within him. There was no strength in him like what another king, King Hezekiah said when the Assyrian army was threatening the nation, “This is a day of distress, of rebuke, and of disgrace; children have come to the point of birth, and there is no strength to bring them forth.” Our enemy loves to humiliate us, taunt us and bring us totally down as if we are dead.

The turning point for King Hezekiah was his going to the prophet Isaiah who sought the Lord for the king. The zeal of the Lord would accomplish his salvation and the remnant of Judah would take root downward and bear fruit upward. The remnants were those who had experienced the salvation of God and their lives would not be the same. King David also realized the key to the situation was to go to the Lord, to only think and meditate on all the Lord had done for him. When he pondered the works of the hands of the Lord, he stretched out his hands to God in prayer. Going to God turns the living dead to a dying life.

The apostle lives a dying life although he could have turned into a living dead many times. When he was warned of the danger in Jerusalem, he declared that he was not afraid of chains, even he had to die there, he was prepared to do so. He lived to do God’s will and he only prayed that His will be done and not his own will. This is the key to defeating our enemy, not thinking of ourselves but only thinking of God in all situations. In Revelation 12:3, we are told of the way to victory is by the blood of Jesus, the Word of testimony and not fearing death. When the last trump card, life, is taken away, the enemy has nothing greater to threaten us.

What is your life? Is it a living death or a dying life? The difference is how you look at your life. Is your life for the Lord or for yourself? A self-focused life is like a living death, it is easily attacked by the enemy and can be filled with pain and losses. Would you begin living for the Lord now and experience the dying life. Think less about yourself and more about God and His Kingdom from now on.