Trying To Be a Christian
Are you saying to God, “I’m really trying to be a Christian”? Do you find yourself getting discouraged with your Christian walk? Maybe you wish you could see more change in your life. You want to be better, but don’t know how. What is the key? Is it for a limited few?
I tried for years
First of all, let me say that I totally get it. I have been there. I learned if we want to be Christ-like, there is one important key. We need to recognize that it is not within our human capabilities to be Christ-like. Simply stated, human efforts cannot produce spiritual growth. Only God can create His life in us. If we abandon our efforts and yield ourselves to God, He will have the freedom to complete His work which He started in us.
Quit trying
We simply need to quit trying so hard to be like Christ and simply go to God with expectant hearts waiting on Him, relinquishing every effort on our part to get better. He will live through us giving us a supernatural Christian life!
Each day give yourself and your spiritual growth into His hands. He will do the work and complete it as long as we stay out of the way.
We make the mistake of thinking it is up to us with His help. But that is the natural way of trying to be spiritual. Paul tells us that the two are enemies. Natural vs. spiritual. They don’t think alike.
No makeovers
God isn’t going to give us a make-over. He isn’t trying to fix up our natural abilities, character, etc. There is no room for who we are by nature, through a physical birth. He wants to transform us. Make us new. Give you a new you.
Notice it says, “being transformed”, not transforming yourself. The power that raised Christ from the dead lives in us and will transform us into His likeness. Now, doesn’t that take a weight off your shoulders? It is His power, not our ability.
To be like Jesus
To be like Him, we need to be totally dependent on Him. Until we come to the place of relinquishing all our efforts, as good as they seem are simply that – our human efforts. Our humanness can never be godlike. We can fix up ourselves and become a better human, but that is not godlike. We just make a better human. That is not what God wants.
Colossians 3:3 tells us that when we were born again our old life died. We can’t fix it up. We are dead to who we were and our life is now hidden with Christ in God. We now have a new life – His life growing in us. Let’s step out of the way and allow Him to work in us, changing us into a new person. Our daily walk with Him will be so different.
Words to light your path this week
- Philippians 2:13 …for it is God who works in You both to will and to do for his good pleasure. NKJV
- Philippians 1:6 being confident of this very thing , that He who has begun a good work in You will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. NKJV
- 2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. NKJV
- 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify You completely; and may Your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls You is faithful, who also will do it.
- Isaiah 64:8 But now, O Lord, You are our Father; We are the clay, and You our potter; and all we are the work of Your hand. NKJV
Dear Lord, may we each day come to You, acknowledging we need You and are totally dependent on You to change us. We give You permission to change us. As we read Your word and learn more about who You are and who we are in You, may we focus on You and keep our eyes on You.
I Surrender All – Joey and Rory live
