Minute Musings...The Cost

If you stop and think about it, most of us live from day to day oblivious to the cost of our faith.
Yes, our faith is not free.  Salvation is a gift, but its cost was steep.  Romans 5:8  "But God
commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."
Our salvation has the price tag of the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ on it.  Have you
ever wondered what God thinks when He see's how carelessly, thoughtlessly we treat His
gift of salvation which cost Him His Son's life?  You are probably thinking, "I don't do that!"
But if you honestly judge yourselves, we are all guilty of dismissing the cost. 

Every time we ignore the Spirit's urgings;  the times we get angry and think unkind thoughts.
How about the pride that slips into our lives, the selfishness.  Each time we act in the flesh
instead of the Spirit, we are ignoring the cost of our faith.  Romans 6:12 exhorts us, "Let
not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof."
This is not saying that we will be sin free on this earth...it's saying that we need to commit
our lives to the Holy Spirit, to let Him have control.  Will we fail, yes, unfortunately as long
as we have the old nature we will have this battle.  But when we fail, we repent and keep on!

We find that the Apostle Paul had this battle, he speaks of it in Romans 7:18 & 19, "For I
know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing;  for to will is present with
me;  but how to perform that which is good I find not.  For the good that I would I do
not:  but the evil which I would not, that I do."  But Paul did not quit and give up when
hemfailed, for he knew the cost of his salvation.  Romans 8:1  "There is therefore now no
condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but
after the Spirit." 

Yes, salvation is free...but there was a great cost to Jesus Christ.  And there is also a cost
to us, not in the gift but in the walk.  To "walk not after the flesh" involves a sacrifice on
our part!  Are you willing to give up whatever it is that is keeping you walking in the flesh
instead of the Spirit?  Honestly examine your life in comparison to the cost of your faith; 
then repent, make the changes needed to walk "after the Spirit" and become a vibrant,
living testimony for the Author of our faith.