In His Image

 

Genesis 1:26-27 Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

 

An American Family Association feature film states that when we struggle with thoughts, feelings, words and actions in our life, it is worth the struggle to do things God’s way and try to honor God in that. Yet, know that all of the Christian life is a struggle; obeying God is a struggle, holiness is a struggle. The fact that there is a struggle doesn’t mean that you are on the wrong path. The fact that it is hard doesn’t mean that you should give up. The fact that it doesn’t feel “right” doesn’t mean that you should put your feelings above the Word of God and say: “Well, I’m going to going with my feelings instead of what God says.” It is when we feel that we are at our wits end, can’t help ourselves and we feel that we are at a loss that as to what we are able to do that we become candidates to opening ourselves up to experience the power of God.

 

Romans 12:1-2 “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

 

God is clear that we are created in His image. An old Puritan prayer reads: “God, help me to honor You by believing before I feel, for great is the sin if I make feeling a cause for faith.” Romans 6:16-18 explains, “Do you not know that if you continually surrender yourselves to anyone to do his will, you are the slaves of him whom you obey, whether that be to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience which leads to righteousness (right doing and right standing with God)? But thank God, though you were once slaves of sin, you have become obedient with all your heart to the standard of teaching in which you were instructed and to which you were committed. And having been set free from sin, you have become the servants of righteousness (of conformity to the divine will in thought, purpose, and action).”

 

John 3:16-17 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.”

 

God took the excruciating, ignominious atoning death of His Son Jesus Christ and makes it the means by which He saves the entire world. Do we need any greater demonstration of His love? Because we have that great sacrificial love unto salvation, we can give up having to control our own life and allow Jesus Christ, living in us with through the indwelling Holy Spirit to be our primary control and influence in our lives because God is strong enough, wise enough and loving enough to take our sinful desire from our fallen nature and using it as a means of shaping Christ in us. 

Galatians 5:25 “If we live by the [Holy] Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. [If by the Holy Spirit we have our life in God, let us go forward walking in line, our conduct controlled by the Spirit.]”