Faithfulness to God

I have found through the course of my life that the hardest part of following God is getting over myself.  For many years as a Christian, I thought my biggest obstacle was Satan because he was my enemy and was trying to defeat me.  However, the older I get the more I am convinced that the biggest hindrance to my spiritual growth is “ME”.  
I GAVE my life to Jesus many years ago.  I chose to embrace God’s plan for salvation through faith.  However, it has taken me years to comprehend that I was BOUGHT by the blood sacrifice of Jesus, and therefore, I am no longer my own boss.  Funny thing is;  I never was my own boss.  Before Christ, I was a slave to sin and death; therefore, sin and death were my boss.  Once I accepted the truth of Christ on the cross and received it for my own, I became a slave to righteousness.  So who will I obey?
We are all dependent on God for life. He is the One who created us.  Even if we do not accept it, He is our origin.  He gives us life and sustains it until we are ushered into death according to His timing and plan.  Regardless of whether we embrace this fact or not, and regardless of whether we believe it or not; this is the truth. We cannot make our heart beat or even determine we will continue to breathe if God has determined it is our time to leave this earth.  He is our creator, and we will all bow down to worship Him. One day every knee will bow before Him because He is God and He is worthy.
Once we receive the salvation of Jesus, we should dwell on the reality that God is with us.  (How awesome is that?) We should rehearse who He is and what He has done.  Let’s meditate on God’s care and allow that to motivate us to live faithfully.  Dwelling on the reality that we are so dependent on God that we continue to breath only because He allows it.  The earth we stand on is His.  He created it.  The more we dwell on these truths, the more we will find our goals and dreams begin to shift.  We will see our dreams and desires move away from selfishness and worldliness.
We need to remind ourselves that God is with us and make an effort to look for Him to manifest Himself. Doing this throughout the day will help spur each one of us on and align our dreams and desires with Him.  The scripture says that He will give us the desires of our heart.  When we seek Him, He changes our dreams and desires.  Scripture does not say that he gives us the selfish and worldly desires of our hearts.
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We truly are not our own.  We will either be slave to sin and this world with all of its demands, or we will “abandon our pursuit of selfish goals and dreams in exchange for the reckless pursuit of the life Christ died to give.”  
  1. Spend time thinking of the price that was paid for your salvation.
  2. Become aware of your dreams and goals.  (Do they line up with Christ?)
  3. If not, repent.  (This is not for condemnation rather to set you free to live the life Christ died to give) . Remind yourself that God is with you, look for Him and dwell on all His benefits.  Allow this to motivate you to faithful living.
Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?

--Beverly Verhage

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