I should be writing something about Christmas. I know a year is almost over and a brand new one is just around the corner, and maybe I should say something about the new year. But somehow, I feel compelled to say something else. Something completely unrelated to this week of celebration, parties, gifts, and friendship. Instead, I ask us a simple question – Is Christ in us?
Is that even an appropriate question to ask in a blog addressed to Christians? I’d like to say that I’m taking the lead from the Apostle Paul. In 2 Corinthians 13:5, this is the exact question he asked in his letter to the Corinthians – to the Church, to Christians, to those professing a belief in Jesus.
If Paul saw fit to raise such a question in the midst of one of the largest, most outwardly successful churches in his day, surely, this should be a question we should be asking as well.
As I read this verse last week during my devotionals, I asked myself this same question. Let me quote you the verse in the New King James version: “Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? – unless indeed you are disqualified.”
I pondered Paul’s question, and I asked myself if I was in the faith. I examined my heart. I waited and paused. Then, the soothing, assuring Presence of God flooded my heart. He drew near and a deep confidence rose in me, and I knew I am in the faith and Christ is in me. I whispered His Name into the far down recesses of my heart. What answered was not an empty echo of my own voice returning to me, but a resonance of His Being. His very Presence responded.
For once, I can wholly understand how powerful this simple question can be. Here is a question that’s foremost meant to be a self-check and test for ourselves. At the same time, it’s a question that connects us back to God.
The test itself cannot be answered analytically, nor through logic. The answer has to come by a response from the Divine as He extends His touch to us. It’s in His touch that we know we’re in the faith. It’s also in His touch that our inward pining is answered and satisfied.
I started out intending to apply what I read in Scripture, and to test myself. I ended up receiving far more than that. I walked away satisfied and fulfilled. That’s what a touch from God does for us. There are still many questions to be answered. There are many struggles that remain. There are situations that need to be turned. But a touch from God changes our state from flux to stillness, from anxiety to equanimity. More than that, it’s an assurance of Him being with us and in us.
What a blessed state it is to know that Christ is in us. Ask the question – it’s both revealing… and rewarding.
