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Discussion Forum : Articles and Sermons : Stop Trying to Live the Christian Life by Your Own Strength

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 Stop Trying to Live the Christian Life by Your Own Strength

For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.

Col. 1:29

We come to Christ by faith. We believe that the finished work of Christ on the Cross was for us. Christ’s death saves us from the penalty of our sin, his burial delivers us from the power of sin, and his raising to life again overcomes the presence of sin. We are free indeed.

Yet, we continue in the Christian life struggling and striving to live a life of holiness. Frustrated, we read the New Testament’s instructions for Christian living and find them impossible to obey. We want to quit, it’s all too much and too hard in a world gone mad.

Yet, God has something better for us. He wants us to trust his Son: that very Son who lives in us by the power of the Holy Spirit (Gal. 2:20). The Lord never intended for us to live the Christian life in our own strength. God’s intention: allow Christ to live the Christian life in and through us (Col. 2:6). By faith, we trust the only one who has ever successfully lived the Christian life to empower us to say, “no,” to sin and “yes,” to righteousness (Titus 2:12).

How stupid it would be to buy a car with a powerful engine under the hood and then to spend the rest of your days pushing it! Thwarted and exhausted, you would wish to discard it as a useless thing! Yet to some of you who are Christians, this may be God’s word to your heart.

When God redeemed you through the precious blood of His dear Son, He placed, in the language of my illustration, a powerful engine under the hood–nothing less than the resurrection life of God the Son, made over to you in the person of God the Holy Spirit. Then stop pushing! Step in and switch on and expose every hill of circumstance, of opportunity, of temptation, of perplexity–no matter how threatening–to the divine energy that is available.


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SI Moderator - Greg Gordon

 2011/12/18 13:15Profile
MichaelLiao
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Joined: 2011/4/24
Posts: 214
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

 Re: Stop Trying to Live the Christian Life by Your Own Strength

O Brother Greg,

This is a truth I hold dearly, yet I just keep slipping from it. Just always prone to striving/performing in the flesh to please God and end up in failure and backsliding all the time. I don't exactly know how to get back to it. God help us to live this truth; to just simply rest in Christ and Christ alone. That He alone is sufficient for everything: our justification, regeneration, sanctification, redemption, reconciliation, freedom, and everything else in His word.

God help us

In Jesus' Name,

- Amen


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Michael Liao

 2011/12/18 14:22Profile









 Re:

There is an element on our part and that is that we should seek Him.

Seeking Him is a work in itself, to be blunt, it's hard work.

Heaven sometimes feel like brass and there are moments that while praying we wonder if we are getting any where. Then there is that sense to push forward to more and we pray more and more.

God has made all the provision for a successful Christian life in Christ, but there is one thing that He requires of us that we don't give to Him readily even though He will poke prod and do whatever it takes to get our attention and that is the giving of our TIME.

How many of us don't give God enough time, I know I don't. I take everything for granted until something happens to my body or a family member is sick. Most of us (mostly men, I don't know why that is) but we save our devotional time just when we are about to doze off to sleep.

When we cultivate love with God, it's a piece of cake to follow Him. It really is. When we are distracted by worldly attractions and we take our minds off our TIME with God and we put on other things like Television, Internet, Church duties, and even listening to many sermons or reading books to which there is no end, it becomes a chore walking after God.

 2011/12/18 16:29





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