Boasting only in the cross is a hard thing to do. It doesn’t mean feeling bad that you’re happy about something, it doesn’t even mean only enjoying church, the truth is it means something quite different. Boasting only in the cross means finding all your pride in the cross, in the sacrifice of Jesus. It means when you are happy because you got a car you say to God, thank you for saving me from my sins, and thank you for giving me further undeserved blessings like this one.
A practical approach to applying this to my life is thanking God for everything. Thanking him daily for loving me, thanking him daily for everything. To truly boost only in the cross I have to give God credit for everything, and that means thanking him for everything.
This is something hard to understand. I’m dead yet I’m alive. It is easier to understand when you apply the fact that he says that it is “Christ who lives in me” You as a person, as a sinner are no longer alive. You have been slain. You died on the cross that took the life of Christ. Then this is where being born again comes in. Yes, you are dead, slain with Christ, but you were born again. You were born a new creation.
I think the areas of my life that I’m living by faith now is for God to heal my heart. I know, most normal people would be over stuff by now, but it seems that for every step forward I take another two steps back. I have come (a long time ago) to the end of my strength to, I guess you could say, just to live. I have pain in my heart, but I know that God is taking care of it for me, and I know that the only reason I’m able to function is because of the sustaining love of Christ.
As to what areas of my life I’m not living by faith by, I would have to say, trusting God to save people in my life who do not know him. I know that I can’t save them, but right now what I’m working on is trusting God, and having faith in him that says that he will call his children to him, and that although I can minister and pray, it is he who saves.
