“God went for the jugular when he sent his own Son. He didn't deal with the problem as something remote and unimportant. In his Son, Jesus, he personally took on the human condition, entered the disordered mess of struggling humanity in order to set it right once and for all. The law code, weakened as it always was by fractured human nature, could never have done that. The law always ended up being used as a Band-Aid on sin instead of a deep healing of it. And now what the law code asked for but we couldn't deliver is accomplished as we, instead of redoubling our own efforts, simply embrace what the Spirit is doing in us…”
Let’s pause here a sec and think about that… Jesus left heaven and came into normal human life with all our problems and messes. He did that so that He could make things right again- something we never could have done on our own! Now instead of trying to work really, really hard to fix our “bad habits” or the mess ups we just can’t seem to get past- we simply embrace what Jesus has done. I like that “simply embrace”…it’s whole hearted acceptance, like greeting a best friend you haven’t seen in a while- it’s full of joy and enthusiasm…lots of smiles! So, we can embrace what the Holy Spirit is doing in us, based on what Jesus did. The first step in this is to accept Jesus as your Savior and Lord- that means He’s rescued you and is now in charge of your life. Okay, let’s keep reading…
“Those who think they can do it on their own end up obsessed with measuring their own moral muscle but never get around to exercising it in real life. Those who trust God's action in them find that God's Spirit is in them—living and breathing God! Obsession with self in these matters is a dead end; attention to God leads us out into the open, into a spacious, free life. Focusing on the self is the opposite of focusing on God. Anyone completely absorbed in self ignores God, ends up thinking more about self than God. That person ignores who God is and what he is doing. And God isn't pleased at being ignored. But if God himself has taken up residence in your life, you can hardly be thinking more of yourself than of him. Anyone, of course, who has not welcomed this invisible but clearly present God, the Spirit of Christ, won't know what we're talking about. But for you who welcome him, in whom he dwells—even though you still experience all the limitations of sin—you yourself experience life on God's terms. It stands to reason, doesn't it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, he'll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to himself? When God lives and breathes in you (and he does, as surely as he did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With his Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ's!” Romans 8:3-11 (Message)
Have you ever found yourself “obsessed with measuring” your “moral muscle”? That could look like comparing yourself with someone and thinking something like, “I’d never do that…that’s horrible!” Or it could look like trying to reach impossible standards on your own. Do you think you can get everything right in your life on your own strength? Well, you can’t. However, if you’ll trust in God’s action- what He’s doing in you by the Holy Spirit, you’ll find the living, breathing God is in you! What an amazing thought! The Almighty GOD living and breathing in you and working out things in your life! When you focus on yourself, you’ll find a dead end- no hope. Yet, if you’ll put your attention on God, you’ll find yourself free- endless hope! It’s like being in a dense forest, then suddenly walking out into an open field- no restriction on which direction to go. God, when He lives in you, can do the same thing He did in Jesus- bring you to life! =) Then your dead life, without hope, is over and your free to live as the person God made you to be. It is so fulfilling to live out as you were created!
In short, embrace what God wants to do in you and focus your attention on Him…then you’ll find yourself in a great place of freedom in God!
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