The situation in Christianity today is much the same as among the foolish Galatian Christians, prior to Paul writing his letter to them. Between being born again by trusting in the finished work of Christ on Calvary’s cross, and the initial activity of the Holy Spirit in them to sanctify them, they had been seduced by Satan and the Judaizers (Galatians 3:1-3).
These religious legalists imposed rules and regulations on the people to allegedly guarantee them spiritual maturity. Their definition of the abundant life had withered to a desperate struggle in which they sought to keep trying to please God. These Christians lived in this constant effort by keeping the Laws of Do's and Don'ts.
Often, we trust in Christ for Salvation, but then we try to perfect our self by our works. Sanctification - the process of becoming holy and pleasing to God - is a LIFELONG process. There is no shortcut. We do not need to spend time nor energy on trying to overcome the flesh or on trying to earn God’s love.
We did not come to Christ by our works (Titus 3:4-6; Ephesians 2:8-10), it was a free gift from God. Therefore, we cannot sanctify our self by our works either; it is also a free gift from God provided by His Holy Spirit within us. Actually, there is no striving in our walk with God (Hebrews 4:9-12).
The only striving that the Bible commands us to do is:
1.) to enter his narrow gate through Salvation
2.) to enter into His rest.
We cannot be good enough, holy enough, or spiritual enough to deserve God’s love. We already have 100% of God's love, which does not depend on our behavior. If the Christian walk depended on us, then we would have no need for Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. He died because we can never be good enough to earn God’s love.
Prayer:
Father God, it is tough for humans to enter Your rest. It really does take effort and striving to let go of our need to control the circumstances in our life and to trust You instead. Thank You that Jesus completed the work of our perfection on the cross, and all we need to do now is to believe that You will complete the work You started in our life through salvation (Philippians 1:6). Once we fully realize this concept, we can actually stop striving, and instead, to rest in Your faithfulness to us (Isaiah 32:17-20).
You give us Your unconditional love freely as a gift (John 3:16-18). We only need to open our heart wide and receive Your gifts of salvation, sanctification and eventually glorification - when You give us our immortal body in Heaven. Teach us how to allow Your Spirit’s presence within us to help us to make a conscious effort to walk in obedience to Your will for us, regardless of the circumstances around us (John 14:15). We want to learn to have faith in Your faithfulness to us.
Thought for the Day:
When we realize the truth of the concept of ceasing our striving for perfection, and instead we enter God’s rest, we will sit in our quiet place and feel His love cascading over us like a waterfall; once we completely surrender our life to God, we find peace, joy and fulfillment that is greater than anything we could ever experience in this world.
