Being the Person God Wants Me to Be - Part 2

            Because I am convinced that God does not play games with His children and I believe that the Bible is our guide to how life is to be lived, I know the answer to what God wants me to do and how He wants me to live is in the Bible. And what is recorded there is certainly understandable and doable. So, after much thinking and searching and trying and experiencing, here are some of my thoughts on the questions I have posed.

            To me the answer is not as cloudy as we make it. The problem is with us, the main one being that I like to do things my way so I can take some credit and steal some of God’s glory. That is a startling truth I must accept if I am to make any progress at all in understanding and living the life God wants me to live, BEING the person He wants me to be and DOING the things He wants me to do. So, think with me about some things:

1.     If Jesus said that He only did what the Father told Him to do and without the Father, He could do nothing, why do I think I can do things in my own strength and decide for myself what is best for my life?

2.     Do I realize just how strong my old nature is within me, and just how much it wants to rule my life? Do I realize that it will be as religious as I want it to be if that is the way it can stay alive and rule my life? Will it pretend to BE what God wants me to BE so I do not have to rely upon God to MAKE me into anything He wants?

3.     Do I realize that I do not want to feel helpless and dependent on God to make me into a fit vessel, but that I want to do it on my own? What could possibly be my motive, do you think? Who wants to be weak? Who wants to accept Jesus’ words that without Him we can do nothing? Who wants to accept that HE is the one who both makes us acceptable to God and who empowers us to live the life that is acceptable to Him? It is not the old nature’s idea to be dependent! It feels quite capable as king of the hill!

We have learned from our parents and our peers, our society and our religious leaders that WE must be in control, we must DO certain things to be the good person, the spiritual person whom others, even God, finds acceptable and worthy of love and praise. So, we keep on trying. We keep doing….or we quit, when we don’t make the progress that satisfies us. How many believers do you know who worked diligently for God for a little while and then fell away from church and service? Why? Could it be that their determination was not enough to keep them from the lure of the world that says that true happiness is just enjoying things around you and going with the flow?