Spiritual

No 34 7-8-21 The spiritual

God created humanity and this world as both physical and spiritual, with the spiritual to control and guide the physical. We unfortunately have taken this God-given order and reversed it so now we approach life essentially or altogether from a physical consideration. Yet, through Christ we can regain the spiritual and it can become again what guides us in the physical world, putting the physical in its proper place. The result of putting things properly together will be both a joy to us and an encouragement to treat both the physical world and the spiritual properly.

The gift from God as he created the universe and us is a blessing beyond all belief. And then when we include the wonder of the life of Christ and his work to bring reconciliation between us and God, we begin to grasp how significant the spiritual is in living life and how it can be such a great help in living in this physical world. By so doing, we can now see and know the acts of God and how he has worked in the world and in our life. We further see clearly all the things Jesus went about doing as he lived among us and how his sacrificial death on the cross gives us an inspiration to become sacrificial people too. Then when we include that this reconciliation also means that we are not separated from God any longer but rather Christ is in us and is actually encouraging us to live life connected to God—all of which come to our heart and mind when we see beyond the physical and see the spiritual.

With this gift from God, his spirit in our hearts can change us from being self-seeking to caring about others, while we also change from seeking or lusting after material blessings to rather desiring eternal blessings. Now we recognized the incredible power and work of faith, love, and hope all which are only applicable and available because we now see the spiritual. The natural mind cannot see these as valuable or if they do see these values they see them only for their self interest.

The spiritual mind can see all things from God’s standpoint, which of course is the only real one for seeing life properly since God is eternal and he created the physical world. The passing nature of the material and even of our own physical life clearly shows us that the only way the material can have meaning is for it to connect to the eternal God. If we look at our lives this way, then we righty understand that that material is under the spiritual. Now, our activities and thoughts and plans and values take on a meaning that can make even the trivial physical activities valuable with meaning and even joy.

With this understanding and as we allow God to work in our hearts and minds, life takes on significance and purpose and is not simply something that we have to go through because we are living. Just think about how different our work, our family life, and on and on we could go as we see and seek God’s spirit to move us as we do the activities of the physical. What a marvel to take the mundane and then turn them into brightness coming from the light of God’s spirit as we live in his presence. Let us take some real time in Bible study and meditation and prayer so that we will become properly oriented to our existence, with the spiritual in control and the material serving the spiritual. If we do so, then our Father who has worked for us through his Son Jesus will clearly be seen and we see what real life is about.

(See Romans Chapter 8)