“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.”
(Romans 1:18-20)
Have you ever considered that God has a breaking point when, through His wrath, He punishes those who have willfully broken His covenant? But what about us? Do we have breaking points in our lives? Some Psychoanalysts believe that everybody has potential breaking points in life.
This thought takes a different perspective when considering the rest of this text. God reserves His wrath for those who are ungodly and unrighteous. As Christians, we should take this seriously and make our breaking points about leaving behind our old lives and moving ahead in the life that Christ purchased with His blood for us.
Christianity is about more than making it through the pearly gates of heaven. It’s also about living a lifestyle that honors and gives glory to God, who made it possible for us to enter heaven.
But, how do we accomplish this, breaking away from our old lifestyles? As Christians, we have taken the first step by believing that Jesus is the Son of God and purchased us by His death on the cross. The next step is to renew our minds, meaning that we take the necessary steps to change how we think.
Consider the words of the Apostle Paul: “Now, this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.” (Eph 4:17-19)
With the understanding that most people oppose others telling them how to live their lives, Paul tells us how not to live our lives. We are not to think and walk like unbelievers. This change requires time and effort: time spent reading His Word and time in prayer. Of course, this only comes as we exert ourselves with determination, which will get us over the finish line.
The Apostle Paul expressed how he exerted himself in this endeavor in his letter to the Philippian church.
“Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. For his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.” (Phillips 3:811)