going after God’s heart

Striving

Posted on 21. Jan, 2010 by admin in Uncategorized

How many times have we prayed prayers like “ God please give me more patience. God please help me to love this person. God please give me more grace today…”

I don’t know about you but I can think of plenty of instances where I have prayed these kinds of prayers.

It is good for us to recognize our need for God in our lives, but why are we striving? Why do we feel like we need an extra measure of a particular “fruit of the Spirit”?

Today I want to delve a little deeper and think about the root of our needs and prayers.

If we think about God’s desire for our lives; isn’t it this- that we may come to live a life where we fully yield to His Spirit? A life where we literally die to our flesh and are fully reborn and live in Christ?

God desires deep intimacy with each of us and it is His heart that we would be madly in love with Him. He has done everything for us! He gave His Son’s life for us so that we might be able to have a relationship with Him!  What an amazing and selfless gift.

So getting back to our question, why are we striving, I think it comes down to this:

We need more of Jesus! It is not that we need more patience, more grace, more kindness because these are all the fruit from the same Spirit- the Spirit of Christ. We strive to love more, to have more compassion and patience- but God’s word tells us that Christ is in us. His Spirit is at work. Not only am I in Christ, but Christ is in me.

If I live through my flesh, I find that what is mine in Christ (the fruit of His Spirit) is being withheld from me and I am left striving.

When we live through our Spirit it means that we are trusting the Holy Spirit to do in us what we know we can’t do. Each time we are faced with a situation we look to Him to do in us what is required. It is not a case of “trying” but “trusting”.

Exodus 14:13 “Stand still and see the salvation of God which He will work for you”.

Christ is love! Christ is humility! Christ is self-control and power.  Christ in us is the answer to every human need!

Next time you find yourself needing an extra dose of love or joy or any other feeling of personal deficiency- don’t ask God to give you a hand out to get you through. Stop striving. Ask God to let His Holy Spirit have His way! Yield to Him and trust.

God does not call us to live a life of striving. He calls us to an abundant life where we get to live through Christ in us!

Share on Facebook