Complimentary Story
April 2025“This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind.” (Ephesians 4:17 NKJV).
I would like to provide a metric for us as believers to measure our lives against, and I provide no other standard than the Word of God itself. The Bible speaks clearly, and we should easily be able to discern that which is of me and that which is firmly rooted in the Truth of God’s Word.
We are living in a unique time, one in which we face rapid and ever accelerating changes in how we process and disseminate information. We need a way to slow things down and be certain that we are following God through Christ Jesus and not walking according to the ways of this world. The way to slow things down is through studying God’s Word and in prayer with the Eternal God who is not bound by the constraints of time as you and I are.
Consider the fact that the God of all creation wishes to reach across time itself and declare to us the end from the very beginning on the pages of Scripture. To think that God would love and care for you and me enough to make a way for us to unequivocally hear His voice should bring us to tears of joy. Not only has He made a way that He can speak to us from outside the boundary of time, but He has prepared a way for us to approach Him in Christ Jesus through prayer. We can approach the very throne of God through prayer wherever we are right now.
Now that we have established that we have a way to commune with God through His Word and prayer, we must recognize that there is more to His Word than just a conversation. The Word of God is that metric I spoke of by which every believer in Christ must measure his or her life against.
I wish to speak of this with you because we see so much futility of the mind among people today. The Webster’s 1828 dictionary defines ‘Futility’ as, “The quality of producing no valuable effect, or of coming to nothing.” The thoughts, plans, and the strivings of mankind are all futile if Christ is not both King and the center of those thoughts, plans, and strivings. Apart from Christ we will do nothing of lasting value.
We can plan for our lives and get lost in the shuffle like everyone else, or we can recognize that if we are in Christ this life is not our own because we have been bought with a price greater than anything else we could ever know. In fact, as believers we may make plans but ultimately it is God who will direct our steps. Listen to the wise words of King Solomon, “A man’s heart plans his way, But the Lord directs his steps.” (Proverbs 16:9 NKJV).
We need to stop walking in the futility of mind that the unsaved world is given over to. As believers who recognize that the price of freedom was hung upon the cross, why would we wish to remain in the bondage and decay of this world? If we have come out from darkness and into the marvelous light, why should we walk as those who have “their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.” (Ephesians 4:18-19 NKJV).
Everything I have said has been to get us to the point where we can be honest with ourselves that we might sit quietly with the Lord and measure our life and our way of thinking against what God’s Word says. Do we chase after the things of this world as a means of satisfaction and fulfillment? Do we reject the darkness and futility of the worldly mindset because we know the God of all creation? Perhaps even more importantly, how do others see us, do our lives testify boldly that we have the Truth, or do we blend into the darkness with both futility of mind and actions?
“But you have not so learned Christ, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.” (Ephesians 4:20-24 NKJV).
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