The Lord wants us to ride on the heights of the earth or in other words He wants us to live above circumstances. He wants us to live an abundant life of great joy, peace and love. He did not come for us to live a defeated Christian life but a life of abundance. He came that we might have life.
I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. John 10:10b
The secret to living a victorious Christian life is to exchange the temporal for the eternal. There was a person in the Old Testament that the Lord found much delight in. In fact, he is the only person in the Old Testament that the Lord said that He loved. He loved this man so much that this man’s name is mentioned more than any other name in the Bible other than the name of the Lord. His name is Jacob. The Lord loved Jacob. The Lord loved Jacob because he chose the eternal over the temporal. The Lord despised his brother, Esau, who chose the temporal over the eternal.
Just as it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” Romans 9:13
In fact, the Lord defines immorality as choosing the temporal over the eternal. Every time we sin we choose the temporal desires or pleasures of this life over the eternal value of knowing God.
that there be no immoral or godless person like Esau, who sold his own birthright for a single meal. Hebrews 12:16
If we want to please the Lord then we must live a life of faith. The righteous shall live by faith. Faith is trusting the Lord for the eternal over the temporal. Bitterness comes when we choose the temporal values in life over the eternal value of knowing the Lord through trusting Him and living by faith. Esau chose the temporal values and became bitter. Jacob chose the eternal values and Jacob came to know the Lord.
See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled; Hebrews 12:15
Knowing the Lord God through His Word is eternal and our souls are eternal.
This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. John 17:3
Jesus is the Word who became flesh and dwelt among us so when we live by the Word of God then we are choosing the eternal. When we choose Jesus Christ then we choose to obey His Word. When we reject His Word then we reject Christ.
And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14
How do we choose the eternal over the temporal? Everything is temporal that is not eternal. The temporal includes our life and everything in it: our health, our loved ones, our dreams, our future and anything else that is precious to us in this present life. We must count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus our Lord.
More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, Philippians 3:8
How do we count all things to be loss that we may gain the knowledge of Christ? We present our bodies to the Lord as a living and holy sacrifice. It includes everything that it temporal in our lives. It is a spiritual service of worship that we might love Him with all of our heart.
Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. Romans 12:1
The Lord offered all of Himself in death on the cross for our life, that we might live. It is when we die to ourselves that we learn to live. Jesus Christ died to His will that He might do the will of the Father.
For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Romans 6:10
In the same way, when we offer ourselves to God we deny ourselves, that is, we die to ourselves that we might live for the will of God to obey Him and do His will.
And He summoned the crowd with His disciples, and said to them, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.” Mark 8:34
No man can serve two masters, the Lord said in His Word. We can not serve ourselves and serve Jesus Christ. We must either die to ourselves and live for Jesus Christ or we must turn our back on and deny Christ. That is the choice that everyone has. For this reason, each of us will be judged for what we did with Jesus Christ. Do we choose to worship Him by giving our life to Him to do His will or do we choose our own desires and to live for what we want?
This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. John 3:19
When we choose ourselves and our will over choosing the Lord then we are choosing to live in darkness. When we choose the Lord Jesus Christ and choose to live for Him it is by faith. When we choose Jesus Christ we begin to live in the light. Jesus is the light of the world and all who come to Him receives the light.
Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.” John 8:12
The Christian lives by faith and by faith we die to ourselves and live to Him. We can give ourselves completely to Him because He gave Himself completely for us. He gave Himself to us because of love and it is love that motivates us to give ourselves to Him. He first loved us by dying on the cross for us. Our love for Him is a response to His love for us. It is love for Him and trust in Him that allows us to die to ourselves and live for Him.
We love, because He first loved us. I John 4:19
We can trust the Lord with the temporal and all that seems precious to us: our lives, our loved ones, our health, our dreams, our future and anything else because we can trust His love for us. His love is perfect and perfect love casts out all fear.
There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, I john 4:18a
We hold onto “things” because of fear of losing them. When we give all to Him then He gives back to us what is good, acceptable and perfect. What we give to Him no longer controls us but we are free from the worries and control of holding on to what was precious to us. The Lord loves us and does not withhold anything that is good from us.
No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly. Psalm 84:11b
Instructions To A Young Life 