TO DIE FOR

For where there is a testament, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator.

Hebrews 9:16 (NKJV)

This is the spring board verse for where I am going.

Where there is a testimony, there must also be a death.

If I am going to have any sort of testimony in Christ Jesus,

there is going to have to be a death of sorts on my end.

To have a testimony, I will have to die to flesh.

I will have to die to addiction - of any kind (that means from drugs to chocolate, from hours spent gossiping to hours spent cleaning)

I will have to die to pride.

I will have to die to self.

Some of my dreams will die.

Many of the plans I had for my life may perish.

Even the plans I deemed good.

But the testament...

the testament left behind by Christ Jesus....

the testament HE died for so that I could even have a testimony....

is better than anything else.

The question is am I willing to let those things die for Him?

Or am I going to spend the next year of my life resurrecting them?

Over and over again....

So this week, as so many of us do, I am pondering these thoughts.

What do I not want to carry in to 2011 with me?

What do I not even what to carry in to tomorrow with me?

Perhaps even the next minute?

My testimony in Christ is one partly of death...

His, Jesus Christ, for my sins and my salvation.

To deliberately deliver me from sin and unto the Father.

To accept that testament is to die to myself.

My wants.

My needs.

My ideas.

My plans.

Same holds true for you.

Make no mistake.

We will have to choose.

We will have to be deliberate.

The life we gain, well, it is so worth letting those things, those issues, die for.

And this is the testimony:that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.

1 John 5:11 (NKJV)