Doing My Part - Part 36

Notice, however, what normally happens;  We come to recognize an evil in our lives, come under conviction about it, and accept God's correcting; but instead of letting God continue dealing with it, we take it back into our own hands to manage, and fall back into temptation again.  How did the person respond?  "You can wait until you will accept that food gladly;" and victory was eventually gained.  When we turn away until it becomes a joy to obey God in whatever area He is bringing conviction, we too will gain the victory.

We find the following instructive quotation in W.W. Prescott's book, Victory in Christ:
    "For a long time I tried to gain the victory over sin, but I failed.  I have since learned the reason.  Instead of doing the part which God expects me to do--which we have learned is abiding in the Vine, to use the imagery and language we have been utilizing in these discussions--and which I can do, I was trying to do God's part, which He does not expect me to do, and which I cannot do.  Primarily, my part is not to win the victory--and produce the fruit--but to receive the victory-receive the Holy Spirit and let Him produce the fruit--which has already been won for me by Jesus Christ"--when He took the place of Adam and day by day developed the character which Adam failed to acquire. Jesus won the victory; He won the victory over Satan and sin.

Jesus wants to give us His victory, but He's having an awful time getting us to accept it.  Why?  Because we are unwilling to do our part, which is abiding in Him, and allowing Him to accomplish the pruning, which will result in the development of His character in us.  It doesn't sound too difficult, but it is, because as He grafts us into the Vine, and we begin growing, little sprouts have a way of appearing that look suspiciously like the old life.  He determines these need to be cut off and proceeds, but we find the cutting exceedingly painful, object to it, which results in His relenting and responding,  "I'm not going to continue pruning if you don't allow Me."  But the outcome is a turning away, the impeding of His life being lived out in us, and the reemergence of the old life' He can only live in us if we permit Him to!

I want Him to prune away all the bad stuff in my life, it is painful sometimes.  We have habits that are strongly implanted in our hearts and mind that are hard to give up, but the joy of giving them up outweighs the pain of hanging on to them and knowing we will be lost eternally if we hang on to them.  The results of hanging on to them is not worth losing out on eternal life.  Not at all.
Don't give up, we will live eternally with Christ and His Father if we keep letting Him prune out the bad stuff and we get the victory.  Please don't give up!!!!  Grandma Joan