The Frustration Of Failing

"Show me Your ways, O Lord; Teach me Your paths. Lead me in Your truth and teach me, For You are the God of my salvation; On You I wait all the day.  Remember, O Lord, Your tender mercies and Your loving kindnesses, For they are from of old. Do not remember the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions; According to Your mercy remember me, For Your goodness’ sake, O Lord." - Psalm 25:5-7

 “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. 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.” - Oswald Chambers, My Utmost For His Highest

 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 just keep trying until the frustration of failure causes them to give up.  

That is the way it is with the our 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 our problem.  Perhaps we are trying to do something by ourselves that is impossible to do. God, the Father, sent His Son to do what we could not do. He sent the Holy Spirit to help us live the life we could not live.  To guide us in all truth. (John 16:13)  He gave us the Word to reveal His Truth (2 Timothy 3:16) … to show us and teach us the way we should live, by the power of the Spirit and His Word.  I was going to quote more verses from Psalm 25, but instead I want to encourage you to read it, in its entirety.  Make it your prayer to the Lord today .. maybe every day.   

Think about it – Pray about it – Believe it – Walk in it. Let your light shine and give God the glory.

By Faith Alone By His Grace Alone And For His Glory Alone