How many times have you committed or dedicated your life to God? How many re-commitments and re-dedications? How many re-re-commitments and re-re-dedications?
I do not know about you but I would say for me it was countless times. Why so many times? Because none of these commitments or dedications worked.
I had missed to real issue and the truth of how God in Christ had dedicated and committed Himself to me. Once I saw that He was truly devoted to me, it was easy to respond back.
I was reading the book of Romans but not until recently did the impact of my translation of Chapter 5:5 hit me. "Because the love of God has been squandered and continues in that condition within our hearts by means of the Holy Spirit, Him having been devoted to us." Yes, the Greek word normally translated "given" can also be translated as "devoted." It implies that it was the decision of the triune God, who loves us with perfect love to devote the Holy Spirit to loving us from within us. It was not just a decision by the Holy Spirit to pour out God's love in our hearts, but the joint decision of Father, Son and Holy Spirit to devote the Spirit's entire attention to loving us with a love that is so massively overflowing within us that it is as though God is wasting it. But He isn't. That's how important we are to Him, the Holy Them. This is a vital truth that we need to realize and then respond too. God is hugging us now and once we really know that He is truly devoted and commented to us then we can gladly hug Him back.
Out of that overflowing love comes the Holy Spirit's primary ministry, which is to train us in the truth. Sometimes that is as simple as showing us something we haven't seen yet. But sometimes, it involves first exposing wrong beliefs that get in the way of the truth we want to live. This can be a short process but may also involve a prolonged period of time, which can be very painful as we hold on to wrong beliefs with white knuckles because we are so convinced that a wrong belief is true. In the latter case, the mental and emotional pain can be excruciating not because of God's fault, but because we are often unknowingly holding on to a belief that is contrary to our very nature and, just like a physical sickness, results in a loss of the inner harmony that God created us to enjoy.
We were no more created to believe lies than we were created to be sick or poor. To teach us the truth, the Holy Spirit must first expose things we believe that are not true because they block our ability to believe His truth. As the light of God's truth searches your heart to expose wrong beliefs, it will sometimes leave you feeling very unpleasant - sometimes for quite a while. But that unpleasantness is always a prelude to greater joy and peace. Since the Holy Spirit directs and assists the process of helping you change your beliefs, you are safe, even though you may not feel that way.
It is reassuring to understand how God is working in you. His love is your comfort in the turmoil that sometimes results when He brings to light the things that must change in your beliefs. It is important to God that you come to know that He is love and what that means so that during those times of turmoil and internal discomfort, you are able to rest in His promise that He will never abandon you to your troubles, regardless of the source or reason for those troubles.
God never shows us truth and just expects us to believe it on our own (we can't do that) rather He gifts us with the ability to believe it. With the revelation comes the gift of believing it.
Though the work of Christ on your behalf is complete, He is at work in you to make real the reality, which is already yours in Christ The heart of man is deep and complex, and we do not know ourselves as well as we think we do. Unfortunately, what we think we know can hinder us from reality the truth the Holy Spirit has been telling us, which thus prevents us from experiencing the life we were created to live. Many people think they already know what is important and thus are not interested in learning anything else. It is sad that so many of God's children are content with just a little more of this and a little more of that and a few adjustments here and a few over there when God has so much more for them. It's called life! God wants us to experience the abundant life, which Jesus spoke about. To do so, there must be a radical readjustment of our goals and understanding of life. No matter what you have achieved, you have barely scratched the surface of Christ's gifts in you. I not only want to provoke you to lift your sights, I want to show you how to do it.
It was more than a few years ago that I realized how tired I was of trying to be a good Christian and of trying to be different. My behavior had grown more spiritual yet inwardly little had changed. When I admitted that I was really just acting religious like so many others, something wonderful happened in my heart. I finally learned how to let go and let God. He began showing me how to cooperate with Him, and I experienced Jesus's Words,
Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me - watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly.
When I finally realized that it was not my responsibility to be a good Christian and admitted I was incapable of it, God began to take over. In fact, this change in my belief system set me free from the desire for pornography, which had bound me for years.
I was so frustrated and under a dense cloud of condemnation. At the point of despair that I was destined to forever live with that lust, I remember saying to God, "I give up. From this moment on, I will never again try to be a good Christian. If I am confronted with an opportunity to sin that I cannot resist, I won't even bother trying to resist. But this I know, Your word is true and it is true for me. It is true about me. I don't know how to make myself obey You so I am no longer going to try. But this one thing I will do. You are God and You are good and Your mercy endures forever so I will worship You." Then I got down on my knees and worshiped God. Within moments, something totally unexpected happened.-My despair and frustration ceased, and freedom exploded in my heart. The lust for pornography disappeared.
This was a dramatic experience for me. It has happened a few other times but, normally, the process that God works in us is quiet and we don't notice the change until later on. There are some who would say that a decision like that would cause a person to start sinning. To the contrary, that decision actually allowed God to remove my desire for pornography. I had finally let go of my struggle to do God's will and had let God do it in me. Rather than increasing my desire to sin, something deep within had changed. My tendencies toward that disobedience disappeared. My fear that God would punish me if I did not perform properly ceased.
Please understand, the worship did not set me free. Rather, it was the fact that I finally believed the truth about my inability to serve God and was honest about it. It was a gut-wrenching experience, not something I did because somebody else had done it. I was at the point of despair, ready to give up, and let God do with me what He would. If that meant sending me to Hell, then so be it. How did I "let go and let God?" I was able to let go when what I believed changed. It was not an act of willpower. It was God's love. Since He could do nothing else, He let me struggle until I had nothing left. Of course, this wasn't God's preferred set of events to get me to the point where I could change. He just works in conditions as they are I want to make it very clear that God did not cause or have anything to do with the problems that troubled me. The world provides plenty of problems all by itself. God never has to or wants to add to them. He can't. He is Love. The second I quit, He was there loving me, and I was free.
We no longer have to be locked in a struggle to find significance through performance because Christ already did the work. How arrogant and prideful would we have to be to think we could improve on it? We are now loved with perfect love and acceptance, independent of our performance. We are loved by God, the Creator of the universe. You can have no greater significance. It is possible for everyone to live as great a life as Christ did on earth because, if you are a believer, it is no longer you who live, but Christ who lives in you. You are a distinct and unique individual and, at the same time, united with all believers in Christ. You can now trust God to be everything He is to you, in you, for you, and through you.
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