Romans 14:8 Living
Food for Thought
An all-creatures.org Guide to Kingdom Living

By Marni Montanez

Romans 14:8 New International Version

8. If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord 

Many have given their hearts and lives to God expecting to keep on living just as they were before accepting Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

Galatians 2:20 (ESV)

20. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Giving God our life changes everything for us.  We are no longer a separate entity from Him. A believer’s life is an extension of God through Jesus Christ.  

1 Corinthians 6:17 New (NIV)

17. But whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in spirit
His will becomes our heartbeat and provides the path of healing and growth.

John 4:34 (NIV)

34. “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.

Our lives become rich with the grace of God and the beauty of His presence.   Nothing we give compares to His boundless gifts both visible and invisible.  When we give our hearts to Him we are given all we will need to live the Christian life.

2 Peter 1:3 (HCSB)

3. His divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness.

To live for the Lord is to live under a banner of love for He is love; it is to dance in the freedom of His acceptance and be filled with the immeasurable degree of hope.  

Our death is not always one of physical departure from the world, but rather a conscious surrender to His will; it is to acknowledge obedience as our declaration of love to our creator and Savior.   The death of our body is our liberty from all hindrances that keep us from fully submitting to the Lord with all abandon.  Our body is a mere shell we occupied on earth, but upon our earthly demise, we become part of the eternal; awakened to a reality beyond our scope of understanding.

Our earthly death opens to us our true life; the eternal. On earth we must do all that is necessary to acquire a depth of spiritual understanding.

Challenge:  Practice letting go of your own agenda. With the death of your agenda is the death of your will. Ask God for His agenda…read and meditate on His word.  Sit silently and wait. Ask God to show you His will for your life and when He does, call on Him for help.

God bless,

Marni

Go on to: Romans 14:17 The Kingdom of God
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The purpose of this series is to encourage people to live as loving, compassionate, and peacemaking children of God: Jesus tells us to pray, "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." (Matthew 6:10) God tells us through Micah (6:8), "He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God." And we know from Revelation 21:4 that there will be no more mourning, or crying, or pain, or death. Thus, Christian living requires us to set the standards of these conditions here on earth for our fellow human beings, and for the other animals, as a witness to the rest of the world. To do otherwise is not Christian.