This morning when I got into my classroom, I turned on Leeland’s “Tears of the Saints” as I worked getting ready for the day. It’s a heavy song, but a perfect one to direct the mind of a Christian for his day. I listened and thought about how the more I walk with the Lord, the more He changes the things that I care about, replacing my selfish desires with His. He is changing my heart to see people the way that He does, as precious souls in a dark world. “He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and thrown down like sheep not having a shepherd” (Luke 10:36), just as we once were.

We are called to live differently from the rest of the world, who are perishing. We are called to care about different things, to seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, rather than to spend our lives running in circles, in the pursuit of mammon, happiness, or our dreams. We serve the Almighty God in a world that has given itself to the deception that leads to destruction. We are called to seek His kingdom, to walk in good works, which God prepared beforehand (Ephesians 2:10).

The Almighty God has taken us from darkness, and trains us, making us His people, a royal priesthood, who carry the light of the gospel to a dying world. We speak His Word, and we live as one who has “been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer [we] who live, but Christ lives in [us]; and the life which [we] now live in the flesh [we] live by faith in the Son of god, who loved [us], and delivered Himself up for [us]” (Galatians 2:20).