In Touch - April 12, 2006
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- 2006 Apr 12
In Touch Daily Devotional
by Dr. Charles Stanley
Choosing A Sanctified Life
“Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die” is a philosophy that pervades today’s culture (v. 32). The attitude may seem adventurous at first, but it leads to hopelessness. When those who embrace such an Epicurean lifestyle stand before the Lord, they will have to admit, “I did nothing for You and everything for myself.”
The Lord calls believers to walk a different path — one of sanctified living. At salvation, we are set apart for God, bought with a price, and no longer our own (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). This does not mean we endure a boring, straight-laced kind of existence. In fact, the opposite is true. We have real freedom to experience deep, genuine satisfaction in the present life plus the promise of a perfect future.
However, believers can be swayed from sanctified living by wrong influences and bad theology. The Corinthian church, planted by the apostle Paul, held faulty views on baptism and resurrection, and it had a self-serving attitude. Paul confronted the root of their problem — a lack of God knowledge. We, too, must learn the Lord’s ways in order to live holy before Him. Otherwise, we easily mix worldly philosophy into our guiding theology.
When we seek out intimate experiences with the Lord, our faith stays solid. Remembering His promise to return and transform our bodies motivates us to live sanctified. First John 3:3 says, “Everyone who has this hope fixed on [Christ] purifies himself, just as He is pure.” The hunger that dominates your thinking — either for worldly satisfaction or for holy living — will tell you Jesus’ place of priority in your life.
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