Meditation: 8/25/07
As a follower of Jesus Christ, I desire to love Him and to demonstrate this love through obedience to His commandments. I desire to do His will and to represent Him in the world even as He always did the will of His Father and provided us with the image of the invisible God.
Yet when I desire to live for His glory, I find that I still continue to live for my own pleasure. Even in my best moments, I continue to perceive selfish motives. Preferring my own desires to the holiness I should have in Christ, I engage in grievous sins.
I thank God my Father, who is holy and just, and yet full of mercy and lovingkindness. I thank the Lord Jesus, who suffered for my sins and died to ransom my soul from Hell. I thank both God and Christ for the gift of the Holy Spirit, my Comforter in the trouble I bring upon myself, convicting me and drawing me back to the Way.
As I am convicted of sin, my first reaction is to think of resolutions of how I will approach similar situations in the future. I fall into the trap of thinking that I will escape further sin by my own resolve. Certainly, I will sin if I allow myself to have an attitude that is set against the God's commands. However, I must know that my I will not become the man God would have me to be through sheer will-power. I must seek conformity to Christ by faith, trusting in His grace for the work He has promised to complete in my life. As I take up my cross daily to follow Jesus, I must focus upon His Cross to realize the gravity of my sins against God. I must trust in the life of the resurrected Christ to impart a truly transformed life to me.
I pray to God for wisdom that I would discern the difference between slothfulness in seeking Him, versus seeking Him in such a way that I would exalt my own meager accomplishments and fail to glory in Christ alone. I pray that I would resist temptation through Christ- for I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
Yet when I desire to live for His glory, I find that I still continue to live for my own pleasure. Even in my best moments, I continue to perceive selfish motives. Preferring my own desires to the holiness I should have in Christ, I engage in grievous sins.
I thank God my Father, who is holy and just, and yet full of mercy and lovingkindness. I thank the Lord Jesus, who suffered for my sins and died to ransom my soul from Hell. I thank both God and Christ for the gift of the Holy Spirit, my Comforter in the trouble I bring upon myself, convicting me and drawing me back to the Way.
As I am convicted of sin, my first reaction is to think of resolutions of how I will approach similar situations in the future. I fall into the trap of thinking that I will escape further sin by my own resolve. Certainly, I will sin if I allow myself to have an attitude that is set against the God's commands. However, I must know that my I will not become the man God would have me to be through sheer will-power. I must seek conformity to Christ by faith, trusting in His grace for the work He has promised to complete in my life. As I take up my cross daily to follow Jesus, I must focus upon His Cross to realize the gravity of my sins against God. I must trust in the life of the resurrected Christ to impart a truly transformed life to me.
I pray to God for wisdom that I would discern the difference between slothfulness in seeking Him, versus seeking Him in such a way that I would exalt my own meager accomplishments and fail to glory in Christ alone. I pray that I would resist temptation through Christ- for I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
Labels: personal
posted by Andrew Lindsey | 12:00 AM
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