Thursday, October 6, 2016

How To Avoid The Frustation Of Failing As A Christian

My Utmost For His Highest
 
When it pleased God…to reveal His Son in me… —Galatians 1:15-16
 
“If Jesus Christ is going to regenerate me, what is the problem He faces? It is simply this— I have a heredity in which I had no say or decision; I am not holy, nor am I likely to be; and if all Jesus Christ can do is tell me that I must be holy, His teaching only causes me to despair. But if Jesus Christ is truly a regenerator, someone who can put His own heredity of holiness into me, then I can begin to see what He means when He says that I have to be holy. Redemption means that Jesus Christ can put into anyone the hereditary nature that was in Himself, and all the standards He gives us are based on that nature— His teaching is meant to be applied to the life which He puts within us. The proper action on my part is simply to agree with God’s verdict on sin as judged on the Cross of Christ. […] And redemption means that I can be delivered from the heredity of sin, and that through Jesus Christ I can receive a pure and spotless heredity, namely, the Holy Spirit.”  CHAMBERS
 
Have you ever watched your child trying to do something that was beyond their ability, requiring you to step in and help them?  It was not because of their lack of effort, they just did not possess the capacity to accomplish the task for any number of reasons .. manual dexterity, knowledge, experience … etc.  They needed help from an outside source.  Sometimes they will look to you and ask for help, but other times they will keep trying until the frustration of failure causes them to give up.  That is the way it is with the new life.  We can’t live it on our own.  We can try to be righteous, to not sin, but it is beyond us.  We need help from an outside source.  The question is, are we willing to accept that help or do we insist that we can do it on our own, perhaps if we just try harder.  Someone once said “the definition of insanity is trying the same thing over and over in the same way expecting a different outcome.”  If we are trying to be holy, to live rightly, to not do something that we know is wrong, and we fail, over and over, perhaps we have  chosen the wrong way of solving the problem.  God, the Father, sent the Holy Spirit to help us.  To guide us in all truth. (John 16:13)  He gave us the Word to reveal His truth (2 Timothy 3:16) … the way we should live with the help of the Spirit.  I was going to quote some verses from Psalm 25, but instead I want to encourage you to read it, in its entirety.  (Click here) Make it your prayer to the Lord today .. maybe every day.  ELGIN

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