Stop trying!

Today’s scripture:

“And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever- the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.” (John 14:16-18)

Do you ever wonder why you keep falling? Why you keep giving over to that same old sin over and over and over? Why is it the more you try, the harder it seems to not give over to sin? Well, the obvious answer to that question is simple. You are trying to do it in your own strength. Yes, I know that is a fundamental answer to a typical question in the pursuit of living for Jesus, but the purpose of this devotion is to dive in deep to the core of surrender and pleasing our Father in heaven.

See, many people, and I include myself, tend to think that we need to please God. People have the mindset that we shouldn’t think this way or that way or that will lead us to sin. But it is true. We do need to please God and we do need to watch what we participate in that it will not lead us astray. But, I think the problem is how we go about it… We try and fall, we try and fall, we try and try and TRY!

May I say something that may be contrary to how people think? STOP TRYING!  Stop TRYING to please God that way! Stop trying to not sin. Yep, you heard me right. What??? How can this be God’s will? You were never meant to try and not sin. And believe it or not you were never meant to fundamentally surrender and give it to God. At least not that it would end there.

Dear saints, please understand we tend to think in a way that can be very shallow. Very into ourselves even when we are thinking we are trying to please God. If it were to stop there, the Lord Jesus would be greatly saddened and His heart would ache. See, Jesus longs for a closeness with you. What Jesus really wants from you is YOU. He longs for you. Stop trying to not do certain things and just spend time with Him. And you know what? As you do, your spirit dwells with His spirit and that’s where you are united with Him becoming one. And as you dwell with Him, all that stuff about trying to not sin will fall into place naturally! It’s in possible to dwell in His presence and sin at the same time.

This does not mean you have to stop whatever you’re doing and fall prostrate at His feet. There is a time and place for that but I believe we don’t come to Him sometimes because we feel we have to give up so much of our time. Remember, God knows you have work and chores at home and you have kids and have to prepare dinner. He knows all that. He wants to be invited into all of that while you do it thanking Him, praising Him, talking to Him like He is your earthly loving parent and friend. If you could just see beyond your eyes which are so blind to the spiritual world, you would see Him reaching out to you with arms and hands wide open pleading and saying with an almost weeping face “won’t you please spend time with Me? I want to give you so much more. I want to bless you with My peace, My joy and My strength but I can’t do that unless you let our spirit become one”.

Dear beloved, once you start spending time with Jesus by just thinking of Him and thanking Him continually, and even singing to Him, treating Him as if He were in the room with you trying to talk to you. Once you start that, stay there! Don’t leave! You may think this is impossible but you would be wrong according to 1 Thessalonians 5:16-19. God would not give us a command without giving us the power to live it out. It is possible to stay in His presence and never leave, in fact it’s a command. And as you practice this and fail miserably, keep pressing in when you realize you’ve been away from Him for some time and it will get easier and easier to where you will be in His presence more often than not being there. Then you come to a point that it’s easier to be with Him than not and you will realize all of your fleshly desires have weakened to the point of non-existence!

Reflection:

My lovely wife says, “Changing the way you think will change the way you act” (2 Corinthians 10:5). If we are to have victory in Jesus, we will need to be in His presence and staying there. There was a time recently that I thought I would always struggle with sin and that even though God calls us to a life of always pressing into Him, it still seemed unattainable in this life. But Jesus wants you to experience the fullness of Himself and we cannot have that if we are only giving Him a little bit of ourselves because then we will only get a little bit of Him.

Challenge:

I challenge you dear friends to set your mind on things above (Colossians 3:2, Romans 8:5). Start practicing the presence of God, and as you take tiny steps towards that He meets us the rest of the way. Just as a person trains his body to build muscle, lifting weights and getting better at it each day until he achieves the muscle mass he wants, you need to train your spirit to practice dwelling with Jesus every day even after you fail and you will get better at it then sin will start to weaken.

-Doug McGowan

Therefore, be perfect…

Today’s scripture:

“Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48)

“But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.”

(James 1:4)

Pastor Mike, I fell again last night going back into sin. I just can’t seem to do what’s right and stay right with God. I want to be pleasing to Him but when my flesh is faced with such strong temptation, I just give into my sin over and over! I pray and quote scripture just like Jesus did in the wilderness when He was tempted by satan but I still give in from time to time. Jimmy, don’t be too hard on yourself son. You’re only human. God doesn’t expect you to be perfect. Besides, we can’t expect to live like He lived because He is GOD! He just did those things to show us as an example on how to live.

How often have you heard this kind of conversation? Maybe you have said this as a confession yourself. Maybe you have even given this type of council when someone has confessed to you. I know that I have been there on both sides of confessing as well as giving this kind of council.

Now, what I’m going to say next is going to rub some people if not most people the wrong way. Some may question me and say that I’m wrong. In fact, what I’m going to say goes against a lot of church teachings and church council. Just look at what scripture says, I mean an honest, hard and deep look at it.

This type of council is not only wrong but it leads people down a path of never really living up to the potential God has for them. It also, leads people to look at Jesus as someone who is unapproachable not able to totally relate to. God does not and never will call us into something without doing it Himself and without equipping us fully to step into that which He has called us. “By His divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life”(2 Peter 1:3).

Now please understand saints, this is not done by our own power at all. It can’t! Apart from Jesus, we are as wretched and filthy as they come. It’s not us at all, Its Him! When our spirit dwells and is intertwined with His spirit we become one with Him and He lives through us. Jesus is perfect just as the Father is perfect. This is not a “What would Jesus do” (WWJD) mentality. All though it is a good question to ask yourself, it is not what our relationship with Jesus is based on. Our relationship goes much, much deeper. We become one with Him and it’s Him living a perfect life through us! We don’t have to ask “what would Jesus do” when we are living a life totally in complete submission to Him.

Remember, Jesus gave up all His power when He became a human man (Philippians 2:7). He did that so that He had to totally rely on God the Father. He was without sin and did many miracles only because He was constantly getting alone with the Father and allowing the Father to live through Him. Without giving up His power, the cross would have been in vain. He had to go through His whole life being one with the Father just as we are to be one with Jesus.

Now, does that mean if we continue to fall over and over that Jesus will write us off? Of course not! One of His strongest messages is forgiveness. But true repentance will lead you closer and closer to the likeness of Jesus. Not just likeness of Jesus as if to say we are like Him but again, look at scripture… We are to be one with Him and Him with us! WE BECOME ONE!!!

Reflection:

I’ll be the first to admit that sometimes I look at scripture and not truly take it in for what it really is saying especially if it’s a hard and difficult one to accept. Like this verse in Matthew…”Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect”. Really? I’m called and expected to be perfect like God? YES! Because if not then that would deny what Jesus has said in this verse and in James 1:4 among many others. Again, it’s not impossible when you consider that when you are totally surrendering your everything to Him then you are allowing the Holy Spirit to take over.

Challenge:

Ask the Lord to give you wisdom about these matters and really consider in your heart what the Word of God is really saying and don’t pass it off just because it sounds impossible. But in Matthew 19:26 Jesus says “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible”. Right now take time and take notice your thoughts. Is there any lust, fear, pride, arrogance, selfishness or anything sinful in your thoughts? If so, consider how to give up those thoughts of your own and let Jesus live through you with love, humility, meekness, gentleness and confidence in the power of God the Father.

-Doug McGowan