The Christ-Centred Life

by A. E. Reinschmidt


The Christ-centred life is a life of trusting in Christ. It is only by trusting Christ with one’s whole heart that one is able to make the great turn from self to abide in Him.  Through trusting, every blessing comes; through ceasing to trust, those blessings are lost.

 

A constant, unwavering trust is absolutely necessary, if one would keep Christ in the centre of one’s life. Constancy of trust is as vital to our spiritual life and health as a constant heartbeat is to our physical life and health. We are all afraid of physical heart failure, but how few Christians there are who are alarmed by spiritual heart failure!

 

When you cease to actively trust – that is spiritual heart failure, and this means spiritual death. It means Christ dethroned, and self enthroned again!“Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee: because he trusteth in Thee. Trust ye in the Lord forever: for in the Lord JEHOVAH is everlasting strength”(Isa. 26:3-4).

 

When Christ dwells in the centre of a life, that life will be full of the Holy Spirit. That is the only way that anyone may be filled with the Spirit. Many are seeking the fullness of the Spirit in ways that try to detour around that prerequisite, but they never obtain the blessing. When Christ ascended to the Father’s throne He shed forth the Holy Spirit upon the church (Acts 2:33). And when Christ ascends to the throne of your life, He will shed forth the Holy Spirit upon you.

 

To receive and retain the Holy Spirit requires that we ask, believe, and obey.  Disobedience is fatal to the Christian life. Disobedience destroys confidence, and a loss of confidence destroys the ability to trust.“… If our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God”(1 John 3:21).

 

“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh [that is, in the body], I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me”(Gal. 2:20).

 

“Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in Him; and He shall bring it to pass”(Psa. 37:5).

 

You have at times committed your way–this, that, or the other–to the Lord; but have you ever committed yourself to a life of trusting? This is the way to have victory over self–the only way.

 

You cannot think your way through, nor smile your way through. You may not be able even to shout your way through, but you can trust your way through.

 

Men have made the Christian life a very complex thing. The more they confuse things, the better they seem to like it! Let us emancipate ourselves from the confusing speculations of men, by daring to return to the simplicity that is in Christ Jesus (2 Cor. 11:3).

 

All our trouble with“our old man”and sin is caused by only one thing: that is, self ruling in the heart, shutting Christ out. The way to reach the Spirit-filled, holy, victorious life is by putting Christ in the centre and keeping Him there, by an intensive, constant trust in Him. It is so simple we fear most people will never come down to it.

 

In this present instant of time you can begin the life of absolute trust in Christ that will put Him on the throne of your will, and put self out. You can live the next instant in the same way. The Christian life–the Spirit-filled, holy, victorious life–must be lived “moment by moment.”Start this minute. Trust Him first, and then do the other things, in the strength of Christ, as they come.

 

To get out of self is to“put off the old man”(Col. 3:9). What is the old man? The old man is you yourself when self is motivating you, inspiring your thoughts, and controlling your speech and actions.

 

To get into Christ, is to“put on the new man”(Col. 3:10). What is the new man? It is you yourself when Christ is motivating every thought, word and deed, and Himself living and working through you to will and do His good pleasure.

 

“Not I, but Christ liveth in me.”Is this to you only an ideal or a blessed reality?

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