It Is No Longer I Who Live

There is a strange loneliness in this struggle, a sense that you are facing it entirely on your own strength, and that your strength is clearly not enough. You watch yourself lose the same battle again and conclude that your best simply is not going to cut it. Paul, of all people, agrees that your best is not enough, and then he says something that changes where the strength comes from. He writes, I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. The life you are living now is not meant to run on your resources alone. Christ lives in you, and the strength for the fight comes from him living his life through yours. Notice how Paul ends: who loved me and gave himself for me. He makes it personal, singular, as though he were the only one Christ died for. You can say it the same way. Christ loved you and gave himself for you, and now he lives in you. When you feel too weak for this today, that weakness is not the end of the story. Lean your whole weight on the One who lives in you.