The Mirror of the Word and other works by C.E. White can be purchased on her website, cewhitebooks.com or on Amazon.

“Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought for a price: therefore glorify God in your body.”

—1 Corinthians 6:19–20

Do we still consider our lives and bodies our own? Do we think we should be able to do with them what we please rather than obeying the Word, conferring with the Holy Spirit, and allowing the Lord free reign in our actions? Or do we follow him even when it goes against our own desires, thoughts, hopes, dreams?

If we still consider our lives our own, we haven’t yet fully surrendered.

Once we have, there may still be moments where our flesh tries to turn the other way, but the Spirit will check us faster and in more subtle ways on things that a year or two ago, we never would have recognized as rebellion.

There are times when the idea that this life is not my own rankles. I respond with resistance.

There is always the possibility of willful disobedience while we’re in these bodies, but if we’re maturing in our spiritual walk, that rebellion will lessen in frequency and intensity.

Our lives are not our own. They belong to the One who bought us with a price greater than we can ever comprehend. He ransomed us out of slavery and into freedom—a freedom in which we have given ourselves to him gladly to follow the good path he has forged for us. And it’s the only path that leads to hope, joy, and eternity. Without him leading, we have no hope of finding the way.

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