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Three Areas of Struggle

“For in Him (Christ) all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form, and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority. “ (Colossians 2:8-9)

“You have been made complete” what a wonderful concept, to know that in and through Christ’s indwelling we have been made complete. God supplies all we need to become what He intended for us to be. It’s all wrapped up in the person of Christ in us, living His life through us. By resting and trusting in the living Christ we have abundant joy and peace.

What a great design for living. God, in His wisdom, removes all the “performance based acceptance” obstacles in our path to Him, and replaces it with His very life living within us. We don’t have to strive to measure up to some religious standard, we just live in obedience to the Spirit of Christ within us.

Even though this is to be the normal Christian life, many of us are guilty of living in and out of this joy, rather than abiding in Him. There are many distractions along the way that hinder this trust in Christ. I want to address three particular areas of struggle that most often rob us of our joy and peace.

Rebellion

Webster’s dictionary defines rebellion as: “the action or process of resisting authority, control, or convention”.

The Scripture calls rebellion a sin because it is a deliberate refusal to do what you know is the will of God. It is a willful choice not to obey His authority. It is a choice to do what we want to do regardless of what we know God has said.

When the Holy Spirit prompts us to do something and we ignore His prompting, then that becomes rebellion. When we know the Scripture has clearly commanded us to do or be something and we willfully ignore it, then we are acting in rebellion.

King Saul acted in rebellion when he willfully disobeyed God by presenting a sacrifice on his own, rather than waiting on Samuel. When Samuel the prophet confronted him he told Saul that “behold to obey is better than sacrifice.” God’s obedience is always for our good and to help us live in the fullness of joy and peace.

Double-mindedness

A double-minded person is a fence sitter. They are like a politician who waits to see which way the political wind is blowing before he takes a stand. A double-minded person often wants to hear what God has to say, but wants to wait before he decides whether he will obey. James tells us that a double-minded person is “unstable in all of his ways.” (James 1:8).

As a committed follower of Christ our only option is to trust God completely. We are to completely give our life to Him without reservation, knowing that He will never leave us nor forsake us. We must trust Him for whatever comes our way now and in the future. We must live like Joshua of old who said to the unbelieving crowd of Israelites, “If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve…but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua 24:15)

Pretense

Pretense is an act of giving a false appearance or masquerading to be someone you are not. It is attempting to display qualities that you do not have. It is trying to be spiritual when indeed you are struggling with trying to measure up. It is being a hypocrite.

Jesus said, “These people draw near with their words and honor me with their lip service, but their hearts are far from me, and their reverence for Me consist of tradition learned by rote.” (Isaiah 29:13)

I think most believers who are pretentious do not intend on being that way, they are just attempting to measure up to a perceived standard for acceptance. To them, doing things for God is their way of attempting to please Him. Their thinking is if I do enough good works, then God will love me. Their concept of God is closely aligned with someone who felt they never measured up to their earthly father’s acceptance. So they carried over the “doing good things for dad so he will love me attitude.” They have yet to discover Christ as their very life.

Pretense is about attempting to mimic what God has already provided through Christ. Because of Christ in us, we no longer have to attempt to measure up, because we already measure up in Christ. Because of the resurrection we are one with Him and the Father (John 17). Our goal is not to try to measure up so we can get God’s favor, but our goal is to now rest. We are to rest in the promise that the Father accepts us because we are now in Christ.

Instead of doing so I can be, I now am being so that I can do. We don’t have to live a pretense but we can rest in the truth that Christ in me is enough. We now live to allow Christ to live His life through us, and as a result, we will do the will of the Father.

Bottom Line

Rebellion, double-mindedness and pretense will rob us of our spiritual birthright. God has provided all that we need in the person of Christ within us. Embrace the Cross by humbling yourself, and giving up on self-centeredness, and receive the gift of Christ’s life in you…as enough.

“Without him we can do nothing.” (John 15:5)

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Hearing God’s Voice – Part 3

“Speak Lord for your servant is listening” (1 Samuel 3)

The above verse is from the story of Samuel learning to listen to God’s voice. God was speaking to him but he didn’t know it was God.

In some ways we are like Samuel. God is speaking to us and we don’t recognize His voice. Our culture has so influenced our thinking that we often have a hard time interpreting when God is speaking to us.

When we read the Bible, especially the Old Testament, we read of God occasionally speaking in an audible voice. While these incidences are not the norm, many believers somehow develop a mindset that the only way God can speak to us is in an audible voice.

God could speak in an audible voice, if He so desired. But most often he uses other means that are more fitting to how we normally process information. Listed below are a few ways God is known to speak to His children.

God speaks through the Bible

I have been reading the Bible all my life. I have even read it through from cover to cover several times. I am not bragging. It’s hard to get puffed up about knowing the Scripture when every time you read it you get something new. I am constantly amazed at how God can show me a new truth from a passage that I have read hundreds of times. It truly is a supernatural book. It’s like a artisan well that keeps springing forth fresh water. Please don’t make the mistake of not regularly reading the Bible, because God desires to speak to you through His Word.

God speaks through other people

I am finally realizing that God can and will use the most unlikely people to speak to you. Sometimes it will be people you know. Sometimes is might be a total stranger that you will never encounter again. And sometimes it might even be a child.

When I was in Bible College I had three small, pre-school children. I was attending school full-time and working a full-time job. I lost my job and began to worry and doubt myself. Did I make a mistake to quit my job, sell my house and move 400 miles away from home to go to school?

I was in the living room early one morning praying and begging God to speak to me and show me what to do. I think I was doing more whining to God than I was praying. But right in the middle of my pity party my three year old daughter started singing from her bed, “My God is so big so strong and so mighty, there’s nothing that my God can’t do”.

I immediately stopped praying because I knew the song was for me. It was the answer to my prayer. I will always believe that it was God speaking to me that morning through a three year old who was prompted by God to sing about His promise to take care of us.

God Speaks through our circumstances

More often than not, our present circumstances is God’s way of speaking to us. God might be saying, “Are you going to trust Me through this crisis or will you choose to worry?”

Uncomfortable and difficult circumstances have a way of drawing us closer to the Lord. It’s His way of getting our attention to be more God-aware in all our life. God wants us to be so God-conscious that we will develop a tendency to listen for His voice in all of our circumstances.

God speaks through spiritual music

The Scripture teaches that “God inhabits the praises of His people.” Music sets the stage for hearing from God. It can transform a dead, lifeless meeting to one of anticipation of hearing from God.

I was raised among lots of singing. My dad was a gospel quartet singer. So early in life I discovered the joy and power of music. There is nothing that better sets the stage to hear God’s voice than good worshipful music. Many times God has poured out His love and comfort to me in music. I have been depressed and discouraged and then I listened to worshipful music and my discouragement lifted.

Bottom Line

God is constantly speaking to His children, but we must be listening for Him. We are to listen during every event and every encounter of life. I assure you, God is intentionally speaking to you. But are you intentionally listening for Him?

“Let my heart be broken with the things that break the heart of God.” (Bob Pierce, founder of World Vision)

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Hearing God’s Voice – Part 2

In the last post I wrote about our need to hear from God. In this post I want to address the issue of what keeps us from hearing God’s voice.

The Scripture teaches us that the normal practice of every believer is to be able to hear from God. When Scripture tells us to be “led by the Spirit” in Ephesians 5 it’s our mandate to watch and wait on God’s leading in all things.

Therefore, it is abundantly clear that the normal Christian life is one that is taught, led and directed by the Holy Spirit. We exist to commune with God and get our direction for life from a heavenly source.

Every believer should be hearing from God, but it is evident by the decisions we make, that our communication with God is somewhat lacking. There are several reasons that many believers are not hearing from God on a regular basis. Here are three of the more obvious reasons.

The busyness of life dominates our attention

When we let our busy life control our lack of fellowship with God, it is an indication that we have lost our sense of urgency to hear from God. It happens to all of us, we get busy making a living, running the kids all over town, even doing the work of the ministry. But if our life is to be truly God-centered then we must be intentional about setting aside a time to hear from God. Jesus thought it was so important that he said in Matthew 6:6, “When you pray, go into a private room, close the door, and pray unseen to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees in secret will reward you.”

Our lifestyle screams “hurry up”

Part of the mentality of our culture is we are always in a hurry. We get upset when we have to wait 5 minutes in the checkout lane, or have to wait 15 seconds for a web page to load. Our whole lifestyle is about speed and convenience.

Unfortunately, many of us approach our quiet time the same way. We rush through the Scripture reading and our devotional material, and then we say our usual 2 minute prayer, and then get on with our daily schedule. We have given little thought to our overall purpose and need to hear from God.

I recently heard a testimony from a woman in Iran who was seeking God. She became so frustrated in her search to find God that she prayed, “God I am going to give you 7 days to reveal yourself to me and then I am going to give up trying to find you. “ We often do the same thing, “OK God, I am giving you 15 minutes this morning, then I’m out the door.”

The Scripture says in many places to value waiting on God, “Yet those who wait on the Lord will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles…” (Isaiah 40:31) The Lord is telling us in this passage that when we learn to wait on Him, then our perspective will be like an eagle. An eagle flies higher than any bird and has a grand panoramic perspective.

We haven’t developed our spiritual listening ears

Developing listening skills is one of the most important skills a follower of Jesus can obtain. When we spend quality time waiting and listening before God, then we develop spiritual listening ears. These are ears that eventually learn to hear God in every event of life.

A good listener knows what is happening beyond the words spoken. A husband who has become a good listener knows that a statement by his wife many times has a deeper meaning than just the words she says. In a similar manner, when an event occurs that is hard to understand, because we have developed our spiritual ears, we know God may have a greater purpose in mind.

Bottom Line

You can rest assured that God wants to speak to you. He wants to share His love by increasing your intimacy with Him. But you must take the first step to slow down and listen, because God is seldom in a hurry. As you develop your spiritual listening ears then He will do the rest by speaking to you. He may speak in a passage of Scripture, a devotional, or even through a sermon. He could speak in the middle of difficult circumstances, or He may speak in a still small voice. But however He speaks it’s important that you are ready, willing and prepared to listen.

“Wait for the Lord, be strong and let your heart take courage, yes, wait for the Lord.” (Psalm 27:14)

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Hearing God’s Voice

During my many years as a Pastor and a Counselor, I have had a number of people tell me about conversations they had with God. Some of the stories were as bizarre as a Twilight Zone movie. Others were less dramatic but included some sort of verbal conversation with God.

Early on in my Christian life I would have thought “what’s wrong with me, why don’t I hear those voices”? But as I matured in my walk with God,and my knowledge of Scripture, I came to realize that probably most of those stories were not really an encounter with God, but were more than likely some desperate, and failed attempt to hear from God.

Could God verbally speak to us, absolutely? But more often than not, God uses our natural senses and our daily lifestyle to speak to us. He normally communicates to us quietly in our spirit. Throughout scripture we see a pattern of the “still small voice” as His primary means of speaking to His children.

This principle is illustrated in the story of Elijah when he was running from Jezebel. He had fled to the mountains of Mount Horeb and was hiding in a cave. God wanted to get Elijah’s attention so He sent a great wind that caused the rocks to fall and bust. He then sent an earthquake and fire. But the scripture tells us that none of those elements were instruments of His revelation. In contrast to all that noise, God then sent a still small voice to speak to Elijah. (2 Kings 19)

God was making a point to Elijah. the lesson is that he shouldn’t depend on miraculous signs for revelation, but he should be still and listen for God’s still, small voice.

Learning to hear God’s voice is key to a successful walk with God. He wants to continually speak to and through us, but we must learn to take time to stop, be quiet and listen. He wants us to learn to recognize His voice and to distinguish His voice from the many other voices around us.

After all these years, I am still learning how to hear God’s voice. I must confess, sometimes, I would like to see a little wind, fire and earthquake when I am waiting on an answer to prayer. However, every time I get anxious about waiting on God, I miss what He is saying in that “still small voice”. Often, what He says while I am waiting is more profound than the eventual answer to my prayer. Could it be that our journey of waiting has as much value as the destination?

Bottom Line
Hearing God speak is not something reserved just for the super spiritual, but it’s for every child of God who is willing to learn how God speaks. He wants us to become intentional in our listening, and learn to watch and wait for His voice. Perhaps a good rule of thumb would be to spend as much time quietly waiting and listening as we spend praying?

In the next post I will expand on this subject and write about the practical aspects of hearing God’s voice.

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Reflecting God’s Glory

So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image (2 Corinthians 3:18).

We are a mirror-like reflection of God’s glory. He chooses to use us to reflect His glory and character. What is God like? Look at a committed follower of Jesus and you will get a glimpse of the nature of God.

Of course, none of us are sinless, but God’s intention is for us to be salt and light to the world by reflecting His divine nature. When we choose to forgive those who do us wrong, we reflect the glory of God. When we give of our resources to helping those in need, and help the orphans and feed the hungry, we reflect the nature of God. When we display humility and we are willing to hang out with those who have very little status, just because we want to be their friend, we display the character of God.

This type of behavior is not “normal”, but it sets us apart from the world. Our motivation stems from our new nature, not from the culture. This reflection of God’s glory is not derived from our personality type, but rather from the outflow of His imputed righteousness.

This is all part of God’s plan. That’s the reason God placed us “in Christ” when we became a believer. Matter of fact, the transaction was so complete that the scripture tells us that we are placed into Christ and “Christ is placed into us” (John 17:22-23). That means wherever we go God is there, because He is in us. And where He is, we are also. That’s the reason Paul could say “…we are seated together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:6). So you can see that God has equipped us to be a reflection of His glory.

How can we be sure that we are a continual reflection of His glory? We learn by abiding in Christ. (John 14 & 15). Abiding in Christ includes an acknowledgement of your absolute dependence and trust in God. It’s resting and trusting in the sufficiency of Christ. He is not only our Savior, but He is also the source of our identity. Our ability to show genuine love comes from Him.

Christ becomes our source of everything. We are no longer defined by our secular job, economic status, or our natural talent; but these things become an outlet to reflect the glory of God. It’s no longer what I do, but who I am in what I do, that reflects the glory of God. Therefore I can say, “whatever my hand finds doing, I will glorify God”.

Bottom Line
God created us to be a reflection of His glory. As the scripture denotes, God could have the rocks cry out, but He chooses to use His children to manifest His glory. The world is looking for a demonstration of God’s existence and power. As we fix our gaze on Christ, we can be transformed and then we become a key player in revealing Jesus to our world. Consider this prayer by Oswald Chambers.

“Oh Lord, I look to you so utterly that I am more than useless without you. Be made wisdom and discernment and understanding unto me today.” (My Utmost for His Highest)

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The Divine In-dweller

Author Peter Lord likes to use the phrase “Divine In-dweller” when referring to our identity in Christ. I like that term because it is more than just a term, it denotes what happened to us when we became a follower of Christ.

According to 2 Corinthians 5:17, when we were born again we became someone that we’ve never been before. We passed from death unto life. We have a new nature, a new Identity, and a new name (a saint, child of God, sons of God, co-worker with God, God’s workmanship, etc). We are now in Christ and Christ indwells us. (John 17)

Now, being “in Christ” gives us a new perspective on life. Our focus changes from “How am I going to get through life’s difficulties?,” to “I am trusting God to lead me through every step of life.” The same Jesus that became our sin bearer is now our completer. We are now fully and thoroughly furnished to live life because His life in us makes us complete. We can now rest from our striving, stop our worrying and have complete confidence that the Holy Spirit will go before us, watch behind us and will open and close every door necessary to accomplish His will.

Bottom Line
God desires to move us from being an anxious worrier to a patient, waiting listener. When we learn to bring everything to the “Divine In-dweller,” then we will be listening to hear His voice as He gently, but boldly leads us through life’s trials.

“I the Lord your God, will hold your right hand, saying to you, “Fear not, I will help you.” Isaiah 41:13

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God Is At Work


“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28)

What a marvelous passage of Scripture. Believers the world over read and quote this verse in every season of life. Knowing and relying on the principle of this verse creates a spiritual sigh of relief. What believer hasn’t quoted or at least thought of this verse in difficult times? The overriding draw of this passage has to do with our confidence that God is at work in our life, all the time.

The text is not teaching that all the suffering, sickness, persecution, sorrow, injustice or any other bad thing in itself is good. On the contrary, these things are evil. Life is full of evil things that happen to good people. But the text teaches that God uses these things to produce His own good. He is able to bring good out of evil.

In the phrase …all things work together, the Greek word used is sunergeo. This is the word from which we get the word synergy. Dr. David Jeremiah in his book “What are you afraid of?” defines synergism “as the working together of various elements to produce an effect greater than, and often completely different from, the sum of each element acting separately”.

Only God is able to take something bad and turn it into something good. What we think to be a disaster or a major setback, God can take and synergize it to create a better and greater outcome. Nothing can defeat God or derail His plans that He has for us.

Bottom Line
The real issue here is one of trust. God has given us a promise that if we will opt to trust Him and love Him, He will take all our situations and turn them into something that allows us to accomplish His will. Nothing can touch us unless it passes through the will of God. Because God has a plan and an eternal purpose for our life, He will not allow anything in our life that He cannot use to accomplish His destiny for us. That’s because the One who controls nature holds us in His hand.

Now the connecting passage…

” For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, that we might be the first-born among many brothers; and who He predestined, these He also called, and whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified. What shall we say to these things? If God be for us who can be against us? (Romans 8: 29-31)

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Give Thanks for Every Circumstance

“Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”
(1 Thessalonians 5:17)

The above scripture is one of those passages that we learn early on in our Christian life. Most of us apply the “thankful thing” when we get a little disappointed when our vacation doesn’t work out. We say something like, “well God knows best and all things work together”. I must admit, that’s not a bad thing.

But what about those times when our life falls apart? It might be that we lose our job, or experience a debilitating illness, or even worse, what if we lose a loved one in death? Do we really have a thankful heart in those situations?

This scripture is not suggesting that we jump up and down with thanks because we have a life-changing loss, but the passage is teaching us to apply the supernatural element of giving thanks to our loss. God wants us to see Him in the midst of our circumstances.

There are least four reasons we should give thanks in all our situations.

Giving thanks in all situations is what we do as committed followers of Jesus.
Part of our spiritual DNA is to trust God in all things. Even when we can’t understand or comprehend why this is happening to us, our duty is to give thanks to God because He can see the big picture. Our God is sovereign and in control, and He is up to something when things happen to us that we cannot control. Note the following verse:

“For our light affliction and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen (our current situation), but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal”. (2 Corinthians 4:17)

Giving thanks in all situations is an act of faith.
Our faith is measured by our level of trust. It is trust that enacts the supernatural element of God’s grace. He wants us to be so dependent upon Him that whatever happens we immediately run to Him and draw on His grace to help us through the crisis. Jesus wants to be our rest, our peace, and our “present help in the time of trouble”.

Giving thanks in all things causes us to focus on our blessings rather than our loss.
I think one of the reasons we take loss so hard is that we are so centered on what has been taken away from us, that we miss the joy of our present blessings. Each of us has been blessed in immeasurable ways. By reflecting on God’s goodness we are able to see clearly that we are a recipient of God grace, mercy and blessing. We then move from a sense of loss to a sense of God’s overwhelming love. It’s then that we can cast our burden on Him.

Giving thanks in all things causes us to live with Heaven in mind.
When it comes down to it, this life is preparation for eternity. As a committed follower of Jesus, we are not of this world. Matter of fact, the scripture teaches us that we are strangers and pilgrims in this world. A stranger is not familiar with the territory; he has no desire to get attached to this world. A pilgrim is one who is just passing through to another destination.

I have often heard the phrase, “He is so heavenly minded he is no earthly good”. This is usually a reference to someone who is serious about his walk with God, most of the time it’s not a compliment. I think the opposite is true; when “you are so earthly minded you are no heavenly good”. The more we learn to trust God in all things, the greater the upward pull toward heaven.

Bottom Line
When things are falling apart it is difficult to stay focused and calm. The pain is real, and sometimes the suffering seems unfair. But as committed followers of Christ our response in every situation is to “give thanks in all things”. It’s what we do because we trust God not only for our salvation but we also trust Him for every situation that life throws at us. Rest assured that our trials and disappointments is our cue to give thanks in all things.

“Be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace that passes all comprehension shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus”. (Philippians 4:6-7)

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The Battle for Control

For the first twenty years of my Christian walk I thought the greatest enemy to a successful Christian life was the devil. I believed that if I could keep myself from certain sins that the devil would throw my way, then I would be victorious. Therefore I developed a system of rules and standards that would keep me on the straight and narrow. I figured if I could combine that with faithful church attendance, tithing and daily Bible reading, then I would be able to overcome the devil.

After years of striving to measure up to a self-produced standard of performance and rule keeping, I realized that I was attempting to develop my own standard of self-righteousness. It was a standard that God never intended for any child of His to maintain. God in His mercy allowed me to experience a crash and burn experience that I call brokenness.

As a result, I had a major “coming to the end of myself” moment. For the first time in my life I realized that the real battle was a battle for control. My battle was not with the devil, but was with God. I wanted to be the captain of my own spiritual destiny. I wanted to prove my love for God by good performance. I wanted to measure up to what I perceived God wanted me to be or become.

Somewhere along the way I missed a major tenet in the teaching of God’s grace. On the cross God had provided my righteousness in Christ. I didn’t need to measure up to some standard or adopt a set of rules to earn God’s favor. I learned that the cross is not only the place where Jesus died and paid my sin debt, but it is also where He died to set me free from myself.

Picture it this way. There are two aspects of the cross. One aspect is Jesus died to save me from my sin condition (Romans 5:8). The other aspect of the cross is that Jesus died to save me from myself (Galatians 2:20). In other words, God never intended for us to go it alone and develop our own system of righteousness. God’s intention for us is not “I will do my best and then call on Him if I need His help”. But God’s intention for us from the beginning of our Christian walk is to surrender the control of our life to Christ and allow Him to live His live through us. It is not Jesus and me make a majority. It is Christ in me, living His life through me, and guiding me in all the affairs of life. The proper view of the Christian life is reflected in the following verse.

“I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me.” (Gal. 2:20)

Notice what God has done for us when we decided to become a follower of Christ. Before I was in Christ I was living for me. But now since my old man has been put to death (crucified), I am a new person. I no longer attempt to live life on my own, by and for myself, but I now live with Christ as the center, director and initiator of my life.

I have discovered over the years that there are many believers who were just like me. They have a genuine love for God. They are sincere in their faith, but struggled in their walk with God. No matter how hard they try to live a successful Christian life, they feel as if they never measured up.

Bottom Line
The battle is not a battle of trying to measure up, but the battle is for control. If you are struggling in your walk with God, let go. You are battling God rather than drawing on what He has already done for you. When you became a believer, He delivered you from the need to prove your love for God by good performance. He implanted you with the very life of Christ and given you the Holy Spirit to direct your steps. And as a result of living by faith you will produce good works and spiritual fruit. As Galatians 2:20 teaches us, “the life I now live… I live by faith.”

Our life is to be lived trusting the living Christ within us to guide and to direct every area of our life. So stop struggling, kicking and trying to measure up in your own strength. Surrender your rights and expectations to Him and allow Christ to manifest His life through you.

Here is a simple prayer that may help.
“Dear Lord I am tired of trying to measure up. I confess my sin of living my life in my own strength. I surrender my rights, my expectations and the control of my life to you. I will trust that the living Christ in me makes me complete and acceptable to you. Just as I have received Christ as my Savior, I now receive Him as my life.”

“For in Him (Christ) all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form and in Him you have been made complete.” (Colossians 2:9-10)

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The Remedy For Our Sin

“For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” (Hebrews 4:15-16 NASB)

I believe every true follower of Christ experiences defeat and spiritual setbacks in their walk with God. However, I am convinced that our success as followers of Christ is not dependent upon how few times we sin, but how many times we run to God to take advantage of His mercy and cleansing.

We all sin and need God’s mercy. It’s when we draw on that mercy that we develop a dependence on God. By having a sensitive heart toward sin, the Holy Spirit convicts us of our sin and pushes us toward repentance. Because God understands our weakness and temptation toward sin, He gladly receives our confession/repentance (that’s mercy), and then gives us strength to overcome sin (that’s Grace).

One of the rewarding parts of my twenty plus years of counseling was the opportunity to share this truth with my counselees. I found many believers were carrying around a lifetime of guilt. Their continual failure to measure up to what they perceived as God’s standard brought frustration. Therefore, they just stopped bringing their sin to God for forgiveness because they knew they would fail again. Their concept of the Christian life was based on trying to measure up rather than being dependent upon God’s grace and mercy. We know where that way of thinking comes from; it comes from the enemy of our soul.

There must an effort on our part to “set our mind on things above” (Colossians 3), but beyond that, one of God’s objectives when we continue to fail and fall short is to drive us to Him. He wants us to live every moment dependent upon Him. He wants us to become Holy Spirit sensitive to sin. Every time we sin, every cross word we say in anger, every impure thought, He wants us to immediately be aware that we have offended Him.

By becoming sensitive to the Holy Spirit’s conviction, we will find that there is something supernatural at play here. It’s like God is screaming out to us that He is most willing to give us mercy (that is to forgive and cleanse us), and then He will give us the ability to be victorious over future sin.

Bottom Line

Building a “victorious resume” depends upon how we respond to our present sin. God never intended for us to carry around a weight of sin. He has provided a spiritual relief valve if we will become Holy Spirit sensitive by taking every thought captive to obedience of Christ (2 Corinthians 10:3-5). That will lead to a greater sensitivity to hearing God’s voice in every area of your life.

The Lord longs to have intimate fellowship with His children. He wants to reveal more of Himself if we will be willing to let go of more of ourselves. It would be good for us to remember the old saying, “the water of life rarely flows through a dirty vessel”.

Begin today by asking the Lord to help you develop Holy Spirit sensitivity toward sin, and then when you sense you have sinned just “come with confidence to the throne room of grace, so that (you) may find grace and help in the time of need.”