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Corinthians 4:9 tells us that we may be struck down, but we are not destroyed.
Hebrews 10:35 encourages us, to not throw away this confident trust in the
Lord...but, to remember the great reward it brings us! God often times can use
our lives in spite of ourselves. The apostle Paul fought his own flesh on a
regular basis, just as we do. Paul found that the essence of the crucified life
was to daily die to that part of himself that would deny, destroy or distract
him from the work that God was doing in him. Paul saw as he wrestled with his
inner self, his wounded ego wrestled to the ground by the spirit of God, to
rise up and be a different and changed man. A man, that beforehand, had no
inkling that he could be. Good change in us my friend never comes without some
kind of wrestling with God. We may walk away limping, but we will be the better
for it. The enemy of our soul is not concerned about the damage that we could
do to the kingdom of darkness, as long as we live in fear and feel incompetent
and inadequate as children of the most high, but he does care about the great
work that God wants to do in and through our lives as we yield to God's work in
us.
Spiritual change is achieved largely by an act of the will. The apostle
Paul breaks it down for us in Philippians 2:13-14. He explains that the
Christian life is not a series of ups and downs, but a process of ins and outs.
God works in us, while we work it out. It is a partnership involving God and
the individual believer. God begins his work in us and uses three simple tools
in the process of changing and growing us into the image of himself, that we
cannot make happen apart from his work and power. Through his Word he teaches
us how to live. I read once where a converted cannibal in the South Sea islands
was sitting by a large kettle like pot reading his Bible when an anthropologist
approached him and asked, "What are you doing?" The native replied,
"I'm reading the Bible." The anthropologist smirked and said,
"Don't you know that modern, civilized man has rejected that book? It's
nothing but a pack of lies. Your wasting your time reading it." The
cannibal looked him over from head to toe and slowly replied, "Sir, if it
weren't for this book, you would be in that pot right now." The Word of
God had changed his life, and his appetite. If you are serious about changing
your life, you're going to have to live according to the Bible. You will need
to read it, study it, memorize it, meditate on it, and apply it. Through God's
Holy Spirit he will provide the power, the conviction, and the direction for
you to change. The Spirit of God uses the Word of God to make the child of God
more like the Son of God. The Holy Spirit acts like an internal warning system
in the believer when they begin to make wrong steps and like an applauding
cheerleader when they take the right steps toward becoming like Jesus. Lastly,
God uses circumstances to change his children.
Circumstances are the problems,
pressures, heartaches, difficulties, and stress of life. Suffering gets our
attention one way or another. C. S. Lewis said, that God whispers to us in our
pleasure, but shouts to us in our pain. Painful circumstances whether we bring
them on ourselves, other people cause them, or the devil incites them, are used
by God to help us grow in likeness to his son. Life change is not about trying,
but about training. Merely trying to experience life change can never bring
about life change. I can try very hard to run a 5 mile race, but that isn't
what will enable me to do it. I will only be able to accomplish it by training
my body to run. Training requires discipline and time. To truly live a
Christ-like life, we have to order our lives around those disciplines and
practices that were modeled by Christ. The apostle Paul was trying to relay
this great truth to us when he said in Philippians 1:21, “For to me, to live is
Christ, and to die is gain.” “to die is gain,” Paul had learned not only that
dying in his physical body in this world was gain in order to be with Christ,
but to die to self while still in this world would bring him gain as well.
Everything he had tried to be, everything he was, and everything he looked
forward to being pointed to Christ. From the time of Paul’s conversion until
his death, every move he made was aimed at advancing the gospel, and choosing
to allow Jesus to be his all in all. What about you sweet friend? What is your
aim?
Loving on you today,
-Bren
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