If anyone is in Christ, he
is a new creature; old things have passed away… 2 Corinthians 5:17
Freddy
the fish saw the land animals frolicking on the shore and decided he wanted to
be a land animal. They had legs, and lungs, and seemed to be having such fun.
So one day he flipped himself out onto the beach and at last—he was a land
animal! For a short time, he flopped about on the ground and experienced what
the deer and squirrels seemed to enjoy. He was living the life they were
living, but something was wrong. It was nothing like he thought it would be.
Within seconds, he was gasping and longed only to be back in the water. Their
lifestyles could not satisfy him because he had a different nature.
When
the Holy Spirit moves into our hearts, He changes our natures. Old sins,
habits, and lifestyles lose their luster. Even when we flip ourselves back into
the sin cesspool, we cannot stay long because we don’t fit anymore. As a fish cannot live on
land for long, so those born again by the blood of Jesus cannot live in sin for
long (1 John
3:6-10). What
once appealed to us no longer satisfies, because our new natures are gasping
for the holiness and purity of God. One sure way to determine whether or not we
belong to Christ is to study where our natures let us live. A creature that can
thrive on land is not fish. Likewise, people who continue to indulge the vices,
sins, and worldly lifestyles from which they were supposedly saved are not
Christians. We will flip ourselves into sin from time to time, but our new
natures cannot tolerate living there.
Where does your nature
allow you to live?
.
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