Choose a Better Way

Choose a Better Way

Philippians 2:13  "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure."

Through yielding to sin, man placed his will under the control of Satan.  He became a helpless captive in the tempter's power.  God sent His Son into our world to break the power of Satan, and to emancipate the will of man.  He sent Him to proclaim liberty to the captives, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free.  By pouring the whole treasury of heaven into this world, by giving us in Christ all heaven, God has purchased the will, the affections, the mind, the soul, of every human being.  When man places himself under the control of God, the will becomes firm and strong to do right, the heart is cleansed from selfishness, and filled with Christlike love.  The mind yields to the authority of the law of love, and every thought is brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.  When the will is placed on the Lord's side, the Holy Spirit takes that will and makes it one with the divine will.

It is impossible for us, of ourselves, to escape from the pit of sin in which we are sunken.  Our hearts are evil, and we cannot change them.  "Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one."  The carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be."  Job 14:4 and Romans 8:7.  Education, culture, the exercise of the will, human effort, all have their proper sphere, but here they are powerless.  They may produce an outward correctness of behavior, but they cannot change the heart; they cannot purify the springs of life.  There must be a power working from within, a new life from above, before men can b changed from sin to holiness.  That power is Christ.  His grace alone can quicken the lifeless faculties of the soul and attract it to God, to holiness.

Satan cannot read our thoughts and so in order to take our will out of his control, we must tell him out loud that he no longer has control of our will, we have given it to Christ to control.  Then Christ can control our thoughts and our lives and give us the victory that we cannot have without Him.  It is not God's will for us to repent and sin, repent and sin,  He wants to give us the victory over sin.  That does not mean that we will never sin, but it won't be a deliberate sin, it will happen without a warning and Christ has covered it for us because we are abiding in His presence as we have learned in the last several weeks.

I have been asking God to tell me what He wants on this blog and so the next several, maybe many are an answer to my prayer.  Pray over them and ask God to give you victory in your life and learn to die to your selfish way of life and you will live a life like you never thought existed.  It is wonderful to spend your days in His arms of love and all your worries evaporate.  Grandma Joan