New Morning Mercies #281

A thing I can’t live without, such that I doubt God’s love when it is absent, becomes a functional God-replacement, directing my heart more than he does.

Be honest right here, right now—what do you tell yourself that you don’t have? What have you become convinced that you can’t live without? What are the “if-onlys” that you carry around with you that shape the way you think about yourself, about life, and about the goodness of God? In the absence of what are you tempted to doubt the faithfulness of God? When you look back with joy at how things have gone in a certain situation or relationship, what gives you that joy?

Here’s where all these questions are going: What things of this earth tend to capture your heart and, in so doing, control your thoughts, words, and behavior? The apostle Paul captures the struggle that we’re examining here with these words: “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things that are above, not on things that are on earth” (Col. 3:1–2). Immediately after writing a beautiful depiction of the gospel of Jesus Christ, why does Paul lay out the call of this passage? The answer is that he knows his audience. He knows that even though they are God’s children, the spiritual war is not over for them yet. There is a constant struggle for the rulership of their hearts. From a big-picture perspective, the heart can be captured or ruled by only two things. I’ll use Paul’s terms. Your heart is always living under the rule of “things that are above” or “things that are on earth.”

At street level, you and I are either worshiping and serving the creation or the Creator. The spiritual struggle is that we all tend to vacillate between the two. There are times when we get it right, and the deepest motivation and joy of our hearts is to live in a way that pleases God. But there are other times when we tell ourselves that there is some created thing that we have to have, and we functionally forget God and give ourselves to getting this thing that has captured our thoughts and shapes our desires.

This “above” or “earth” struggle is the great spiritual war between your conversion and your final homegoing. It really is fought in all of the situations, locations, and relationships of your daily life. It is not wrong to celebrate created glories. It is not wrong to want them in your life. It is not wrong to work to get them. But they must not be allowed to rule your heart and, in ruling your heart, to become your functional God-replacement. Not only is this struggle the big battle of the Christian life, it is also a principal argument for our ongoing need of grace—grace that can free us from our bondage to things that will never give us what God alone can give: life.

For further study and encouragement: 1 Timothy 6:17–19