By whose authority am I living my life, my own or my Lord and Savior? And is everyone welcome and invited in?
I often wonder, what is my purpose? Sometimes it is a short term wonder. What is my purpose today? Sometimes it is a long term wonder. What is my purpose for my life? The answer I always come to is to bring life or to be alive. When I looked up the definition of alive, I found the word spirited. Then it dawned on me, I am alive under the authority of Jesus Christ. Who upon his death on the cross, gave us the gift of the Holy Spirit to give us life abundant. A life so abundant and alive that it was meant to be shared with everyone.
In Mark 11 we see examples of this authority of Jesus. Jesus goes to eat fruit from a fully leafed fig tree because he is hungry. There is no fruit. Jesus said no one would ever eat fruit from this tree again and it withered. Christians are like fig trees. If we are not bearing fruit or modeling Jesus life by the fruits of the spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control) in order to lead others to do the same, what’s the point? We might as well wither.
Reading further we encounter Jesus in the temple using his authority to chase out everyone who was buying and selling. Saying, “My house will be called a house of prayer for ALL nations.” Everyone is invited to the temple to worship and pray to our almighty Father. By selling offering animals for profit they were uninviting the poor and exalting themselves as the authority instead of Jesus.
Maybe a new question I should ask…
By whose authority am I living my life, my own or my Lord and Savior? And is everyone welcome and invited in? This is where the Scripture continues, speaking of praying boldly with faith and expectation that through the power of the Holy Spirit giving as a gift from Jesus that our prayers will be answered by our heavenly Father. Let’s be alive (spirited), living our lives under the authority and power of our King Jesus!
