THE MOST IMPORTANT BANK ACCOUNT
Banks have become an integral part of our financial lives. Everyone needs to make sure that money is deposited into our bank account, followed by withdrawal to spend it as needed. Just as a bank account provides the financial resources to help us live, a spiritual bank account helps us become spiritually mature so that eternal life is no longer a distant mirage. In that sense the spiritual bank account becomes the most relevant we can come to possess.
- Deposit: Every man comes into this world with a spiritual bank account, in the sense that he has a spirit that allows him to connect to God. The spirit of man is unique to being human and enables man to have a spiritual relationship with the Living God, without which he will always remain incomplete. This spirit remains dormant in most people, because of the dominance of the sinful nature within man. We recognize this sinful nature within us as we observe our natural tendencies to do wrong even when we are not taught by anyone to do evil. The only solution to break this stranglehold of sin is to have faith in the substitutionary death of Jesus on the cross, whereby he not only forgave us our sins but also broke the back of sin and its dominance in man. While other religions and spiritual guides could show man the right way that they themselves have found elusive, Jesus invites us to a life of righteousness that he not only lived and mastered, but by his death on the cross, made available for all who believe in Him. This is the massive deposit that has been made into the spiritual bank account of all men. Putting one’s faith in Christ is like activating this bank account. The one who rejects Christ will not have access to this account and will miss eternal life.
- Withdrawal: While the bank account might be active and loaded, unless one withdraws from it, the owner of the account will continue to live a poor life. A rich spiritual life is one of union with God. While the sensual pleasures of this world are appealing, they are nothing compared to the divine fruit of being united with God, for it is only in union with God that God’s nature, including his peace, joy, wisdom, confidence, fearlessness, love, kindness, etc. become real. Again, while counterfeits might show you the shadow of the real thing, union with God is impossible without faith in Christ, because it is only in Christ that one’s sins are forgiven, making access to the sinless God possible. Withdrawal from this account includes prioritizing the spiritual over the physical, spending time with God in prayer and reading from God’s true revelation in the Bible. As one counts oneself dead to sin, unites himself with Christ, strengthens himself with disciplined prayer and enters the rest of God, he is withdrawing from the abundant resources made available to him and sets himself up for a rich life.
- Spending: The contrast from a life without Christ could not be more evident. Life begins to resemble the nature of God as union progresses. And as union progresses, the abundance of life starkly contrasts with the emptiness that was true earlier without Christ. This transformation process also gives man the confidence that at death eternal life no longer is a pie in the sky but one that couldn’t be more real. The life here on earth also multiplies in productivity as the inner demons are tamed and the earth responds like a fertile ground to one who is in sync with all of creation. Life does not become all rosy, for now man aligns himself in a direction that is opposite to that of the majority. He constantly faces rejection from outside and resistance from within as his sinful nature fights to keep itself alive in the face of ongoing decimation. The extent to which he withdraws from the account will determine how much he can spend and how lavish his spiritual life will be. The one who doesn’t withdraw, might end up spending a miserable life as he fails to have enough on hand to spend as life unfolds. Even though eternal life will still arrive because of his faith in Christ, life here on earth ends up being a pale shadow of what could have been.
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