Live As Though You Are Dead
March 30
"In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus" (Rom 6:11-12).
"How will I know when I am going to come out of my adversity pit?" said the woman sitting across from me. "When it doesn't matter anymore," I replied. It brought back memories, when I also sat across from a mentor who said to me, "The only problem you have Os is you are not dead yet. You need a good funeral." He was talking about my carnal flesh life.
When Joseph was elevated to be ruler over the entire kingdom of Egypt after years of slavery and imprisonment, my guess is that it didn't really matter that much to him. He thought he was going to get out of prison years earlier when he successfully interpreted the cupbearers dream only to remain there two more years. "Why should this situation prove any different?" he must have thought to himself.
I believe Joseph had come to a place with God where he resigned himself to remain wherever God had chosen to keep him. He had become dead to his circumstances. It does not mean we can't have a longing for better days, but there is a Godly contentment that allows us to remain in any condition with a peace that passes all understanding.
The Bible says we are to live as though we are dead. This does not mean we do not have emotions or dreams. "My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death," he said to them (Mark 14:34). That sounds like anxiety to me, yet we know Jesus never sinned. So, we can conclude that we can have concerns and emotions without crossing over into sin. God has given us His Spirit to allow us to operate inside the storms of life without sinning.
Place your faith today into the hands of the One who can calm any storm in life.
For more from Os Hillman and T.G.I.F., visit todaygodisfirst.com