September 8, 2009 DO IT YOURSELF

2 Corinthians 10:5a - We destroy every proud obstacle that keeps people from knowing God…

We can claim the name of Christ, but unless we go to the effort to truly know God, our claim is nothing more than pretense. If I am going to bother with the thing at all, then I want to do it the way God intended it. Paul’s words to the Corinthians weren’t soft and wishy-washy. He didn’t say “do the best you can” – No, he said “do it!”

Chambers tells us: Determinedly Demolish Some Things. Deliverance from sin is not deliverance from human nature. When we decide to name the name of Christ, there are certain things that we will be asked to lay down because they are a hindrance to our walk with God and we have to do so with conscious intention. Those things can be different for different people and they may not be sinful in and of themselves. You may find crossword puzzles terrific entertainment, and there certainly is nothing intrinsically sinful in them, but if I find myself spending hours upon hours lost in a sea of words across and down, then I need to recognize that my time is better spent elsewhere and perhaps I need to avoid them altogether. It isn’t a matter of following a list of “do’s and don’ts” but rather a matter of being so sensitive to God’s will that we know where our boundaries are.

We are saved by Christ’s blood on the cross and His sacrifice removes the stain of sin on our lives. But we still must deal with our human condition, even after we are saved. God has given us free will and it is not removed when we accept Christ as our Lord and Savior. As Christians we are faced with moral choices every day, and we will still struggle with temptations, but God has equipped us for the fight:
For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. (2 Corinthians 10:4)
When we find ourselves struggling with an issue, whatever it may be, we are promised that we can depend upon the power of God to help us gain victory over those issues. What a powerful promise! We aren’t expected to stand alone and powerless in the face of temptation. We can – and should – call upon God to walk us through. He promises us:
No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. (1 Corinthians 10:13)
It is now simply a matter of making a conscious decision to use the divine weapons of warfare and call upon our God, which for me is often half of the battle.

Chambers explains:
It is only when God has altered our disposition and we have entered into the experience of sanctification that the fight begins. The warfare is not against sin; we can never fight against sin: Jesus Christ deals with sin in Redemption. The conflict is along the line of turning our natural life into a spiritual life, and this is never done easily, nor does God intend it to be done easily.
How do we turn our natural life into a spiritual one? We have to constantly lay it down at the feet of our Savior. We have to constantly make choices in light of our faith in Christ. We can't simply wait for it to happen, or hope that eventually we'll supernaturally find ourselves closer to God. We have to seek His kingdom with intention. We have to demolish those things which impede our walk with God, and put our efforts and energies into knowing Him.