Daily Devotional
Are You Spiritually Alive or Dead?

March 8, 2024

Ponder This

At Christmastime, you may go to buy a Christmas tree. You say, “Let’s get a live tree this year.” So, you go and buy a tree that’s been cut. By New Year’s, it is evident that this is no longer a live tree, we just call it that. It looks live, but it has been cut off from the source of life. The reality will show up around New Year’s. A lot of people decorate themselves and come to church on Sunday morning, but they’re spiritually dead. Their mind, emotions, and will are operating. Their bodies are operating, but minus God in the spirit.

What do we have to do to be lost? Rob a bank? No! Commit murder? No! Take part in a scandal? No! To be lost requires nothing because we are lost by nature. We are born with a depraved nature. The Bible teaches that we are “by nature the children of wrath” who inherited that nature from Adam (Ephesians 2:3). You can be so-called fine, upstanding, wonderful, and religious. God told Nicodemus—a better man outwardly, morally, and religiously, than most—that he had to be born again to see the kingdom of God (John 3:3). So, what does it mean to be lost? It simply means to be without God.

• What evidence does your life give of your relationship with God?
• What are some ways we “decorate” ourselves to fit in at church?

Practice This

Read John 15 with a friend and discuss what it looks like to be connected to God’s life.