Following Jesus was never meant to be an easy road!
We are told that God wants 100% of our lives not just lip service - not just some ordinary howdy doody kind of faith that saps your energy in TRYING to do 'things' that will get you in the back door . NO! God means it when He says that he wants 100%.
God is so so serious when He says that we must "count the cost" of following Him before we make a commitment to Him - If we aren't willing to sacrifice everything that we have then it's absolutely no use in following Him at all.
Strong words indeed - but in Luke 14:27 Jesus Himself says 'and whoever does not carry their cross and follow me CANNOT be my disciple'. If we commit to Jesus - we must give Him ALL of our allegiance.
Lack of allegiance, lack of commitment, occupied with other things and other lives and not handing them over to God are things of which we MUST count the cost before giving our allegiance to God.
Of course we love our families, our spouses, our Grandblessings and many other loves - Jesus Himself loved in many and extraordinary ways and we are indeed commanded to love BUT when the rubber hits the road our ultimate allegiance MUST go to God.
Once we have decided that we are indeed His and accept Him as our personal, and I mean PERSONAL, Saviour and Lord - once we have come to the cross of Calvary and left our burden of sin there - once we have asked God's forgiveness of our sins no matter how obtuse, disgusting, scandalous or obnoxious they may be - once we have decided that to follow the Lord is to gain freedom the likes of which we have never known, then God won't let us go.
I know I walked away from God for 14 long years- I thought I knew better than anyone else and I knew deep down that how I was living was wrong but I wanted to 'do it my way' - Praise God He brought me back to Him! - In lots of ways we can walk away from God - it is a dangerous and stupid thing to do but many have, and alas, many have just 'gone through the motions' of being a Christian with no real 'heart change' at all.
If you have truly become of Christ's followers then you WILL change - your life will be completely different - you WILL have the Holy Spirit living inside of you. Sure we have the old life living there as well but you will find that when you are tempted or fall into a sin trap then the Holy Spirit will immediately convict you and you really can't continue until you have confessed your sin and repented (turned away from) that sin and asked God's forgiveness.
So let's re-hash what we have chatted about here:- If you have truly turned to God and given to Him 100% of your life - If you have given to Him your total allegiance. then He won't let you go, even if you think your finished, even if you have felt that you have 'hit your limit' and that it's all over - you WON'T be disqualified - you just won't.
If you keep on falling into sin and keep on being convicted of it over and over again - if you reckon deep inside your heart that you 'just can't get past this one' - if you feel like you are fighting a constant war - then please take heart - that is exactly what it is all about - we are in constant warfare.
Satan walks around trying to persuade us to 'give it up - throw in the towel - you are just TOO bad' - that's exactly why we keep on fighting - and if we do that's exactly why we won't get disqualified!
God is saying over and over again to us that HE is manifestly GREATER than our sins - Romans chapter 5 says that 'where sin abounds, God's grace abounds much more'. God's amazing grace and forgiveness is HUGELY greater than our sins not matter how gross those sins may be. God can QUALIFY us even if the world out there DISQUALIFIES us. P
pretty cool eh?
Please don't get discouraged in your walk with God - keep trusting Him - don't let your stumbles tell you that you are somehow disqualified from a life walking and trusting in God.
Take heart this week as you walk with God - Let His Holy Spirit guide and direct you as you go - Take heed to listen, ready to act on the promptings that He gives - He only wants to best for you - Let Him encourage, inspire and restore you to Himself - no matter what you are going through.
We are told that God wants 100% of our lives not just lip service - not just some ordinary howdy doody kind of faith that saps your energy in TRYING to do 'things' that will get you in the back door . NO! God means it when He says that he wants 100%.God is so so serious when He says that we must "count the cost" of following Him before we make a commitment to Him - If we aren't willing to sacrifice everything that we have then it's absolutely no use in following Him at all.
Strong words indeed - but in Luke 14:27 Jesus Himself says 'and whoever does not carry their cross and follow me CANNOT be my disciple'. If we commit to Jesus - we must give Him ALL of our allegiance.
Lack of allegiance, lack of commitment, occupied with other things and other lives and not handing them over to God are things of which we MUST count the cost before giving our allegiance to God.
Of course we love our families, our spouses, our Grandblessings and many other loves - Jesus Himself loved in many and extraordinary ways and we are indeed commanded to love BUT when the rubber hits the road our ultimate allegiance MUST go to God.
Once we have decided that we are indeed His and accept Him as our personal, and I mean PERSONAL, Saviour and Lord - once we have come to the cross of Calvary and left our burden of sin there - once we have asked God's forgiveness of our sins no matter how obtuse, disgusting, scandalous or obnoxious they may be - once we have decided that to follow the Lord is to gain freedom the likes of which we have never known, then God won't let us go.
I know I walked away from God for 14 long years- I thought I knew better than anyone else and I knew deep down that how I was living was wrong but I wanted to 'do it my way' - Praise God He brought me back to Him! - In lots of ways we can walk away from God - it is a dangerous and stupid thing to do but many have, and alas, many have just 'gone through the motions' of being a Christian with no real 'heart change' at all.
If you have truly become of Christ's followers then you WILL change - your life will be completely different - you WILL have the Holy Spirit living inside of you. Sure we have the old life living there as well but you will find that when you are tempted or fall into a sin trap then the Holy Spirit will immediately convict you and you really can't continue until you have confessed your sin and repented (turned away from) that sin and asked God's forgiveness.
So let's re-hash what we have chatted about here:- If you have truly turned to God and given to Him 100% of your life - If you have given to Him your total allegiance. then He won't let you go, even if you think your finished, even if you have felt that you have 'hit your limit' and that it's all over - you WON'T be disqualified - you just won't.
If you keep on falling into sin and keep on being convicted of it over and over again - if you reckon deep inside your heart that you 'just can't get past this one' - if you feel like you are fighting a constant war - then please take heart - that is exactly what it is all about - we are in constant warfare.
Satan walks around trying to persuade us to 'give it up - throw in the towel - you are just TOO bad' - that's exactly why we keep on fighting - and if we do that's exactly why we won't get disqualified!
God is saying over and over again to us that HE is manifestly GREATER than our sins - Romans chapter 5 says that 'where sin abounds, God's grace abounds much more'. God's amazing grace and forgiveness is HUGELY greater than our sins not matter how gross those sins may be. God can QUALIFY us even if the world out there DISQUALIFIES us. Ppretty cool eh?
Please don't get discouraged in your walk with God - keep trusting Him - don't let your stumbles tell you that you are somehow disqualified from a life walking and trusting in God.
Take heart this week as you walk with God - Let His Holy Spirit guide and direct you as you go - Take heed to listen, ready to act on the promptings that He gives - He only wants to best for you - Let Him encourage, inspire and restore you to Himself - no matter what you are going through.
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