"But God demonstrates
his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for
us." - Romans 5:8
Many human beings have a
need to understand God, before they agree to believe in Him. They have such a
strong compulsion to control their own life and everything that happens in it,
that they dare not rely on anyone but their own self. They use human wisdom for all of their decisions,
and they collect friends around them that agree with then. They feel safe
somehow in trusting only in that which they can prove and believing only in
that which makes sense to the human mind.
Added to our human reasoning
is Satan’s perfected art of deception. He often draws us away from following
after God by his fraudulent schemes. Add to this our own lusts and the powerful
temptations from living life in the world, and it is amazing that anyone ever
actually chooses to surrender their life completely to God. Our sin nature
doomed us to failure since birth; but Jesus Christ set us free from sin and
death by His crucifixion, resurrection and ascension (Romans
8:2).
Only the Spirit of God can break
down our walls of fear and mistrust and allow us to fully embrace a
relationship that starts with our total submission to God through the work of
Jesus Christ on the cross. Once
we come to faith in Christ, we still often hesitate to relinquish to Him the
power over our existence. We have a lifetime of experience with people letting
us down, disappointing us and breaking their promises and commitments to us.
Eventually, God’s Spirit leads us to the point in our life where we step over
this boundary of fear into the freedom of faith and trust in Him.
At this point, we often
swing to the opposite side of the pendulum. We are totally committed to Christ
and we do not want to displease Him. Therefore, we diligently search the Bible
in order to completely understand the rules and regulation of the law and what
He wants from us. We attempt to religiously adhere to even the most vague
letter of the law (Matthew 5:18). Our
heart is in the right place, because we do not want to disappoint God. However,
no amount of striving will produce any amount of righteousness in us at all (Titus
3:5; Ephesians 2:9). Every bit of our
righteousness amounts to nothing more than a pile of old, dirty rags (Isaiah
64:6).
God knows that we will drive
our self crazy, if we continue to attempt to maintain control over our life.
According to the Bible, those who trust in their own efforts are foolish (Galatians
3:1-3). They boast in their wisdom, strength or riches,
but their house is built upon the sand (Matthew 7:26). However, those who walk in God’s wisdom are kept
safe. Since, they
understand and know the Lord intimately, He exercises kindness, justice and
righteousness on their behalf (Proverbs 28:26; Jeremiah 9:23-24). He delights in them and
they are His people. He is their Good Shepherd and they are the sheep of His
pasture (Psalm 95:7; 100:3).
A few wise individuals eventually
learn that there is no use in trusting in our own efforts. Once this truth
seeps into our consciousness, we start drawing near to God, resisting the devil
and watching him flee from us (James 4:7). The
Spirit enables us to shun evil and honor God with all of our thoughts and
actions. Then, He rewards our faith with health and abundance in every area of
our life. We learn to trust in the Lord with all of our heart, rather than
relying on our own strength and understanding. As we seek His will for every
minute of every day, He removes the ruts and bumps in our road (Proverbs
3:5-8). We eventually learn to give Him
every fear and insecurity that plagues our life, because we come to understand
that He really does care about us (1 Peter 5:7).
Prayer:
Father God, Your ways are
perfect. Your Son is the God of truth and there is no iniquity in Him (Deuteronomy
32:4). Yet, He suffered the persecution
and death of a common criminal to set us free from bondage to sin and death (Romans
6:23) and to raise us up to walk in
newness of life (Romans 6:4). Our old
way of life is gone forever and now everything is completely new (2
Corinthians 5:17). Thank You for
ordering our days and blessing us in every area of our life as we trust in You (Psalm
139:16; 2 Corinthians 9:8).
Thought for the Day:
“Lord
I believe. Help my unbelief.” – Mark 9:24Thank you, Tasha Marie, for the use of your photo...kat
