Undivided Occupancy

[Daily Devotional]

Undivided Occupancy 

They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and
lusts. Gal. 5: 24. 

We are commanded to crucify the flesh, with the affections and lusts. How
shall we do it? Shall we inflict pain on the body? No; but put to death the
temptation to sin. The corrupt thought is to be expelled. Every thought is
to be brought into captivity to Jesus Christ. . . . The love of God must
reign supreme; Christ must occupy an undivided throne. Our bodies are to be
regarded as His purchased possession. The members of the body are to become
the instruments of righteousness. 

There are two kingdoms in this world, the kingdom of Christ and the kingdom
of Satan. To one of these kingdoms each one of us belongs. In His wonderful
prayer for His disciples, Christ said, "I pray not that thou shouldest take
them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They
are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through
thy truth: thy word is truth. As thou hast sent me into the world, even so
have I also sent them into the world" (John 17: 15- 18). 

It is not God's will that we should seclude ourselves from the world. But
while in the world we should sanctify ourselves to God. We should not
pattern after the world. We are to be in the world, as a corrective
influence, as salt that retains its savor. Among an unholy, impure,
idolatrous generation, we are to be pure and holy, showing that the grace of
Christ has power to restore in man the divine likeness. We are to exert a
saving influence upon the world. . . . 

The world has become a lazar house of sin, a mass of corruption. . . . We
are not to practice its ways or follow its customs. Continually we are to
resist its lax principles. . . . 

The blessing of grace is given to men that the heavenly universe and the
fallen world may see as they could not otherwise, the perfection of Christ's
character. The Great Physician came to our world to show men and women that
through His grace they may so live that in the great day of God they can
receive the precious testimony, "Ye are complete in him" (Col. 2: 10). 

>From God's Amazing Grace - Page 96