STRUGGLING-TRYING OR TRUSTING-RESTING?

I have realised that many Christians are struggling to live the Christian life. You want to do the right thing; you try to do the right thing; yet you often fail to do what you want to do. When the frustration builds you snap and do things you later regret. You have no idea how to fix this sad state of affairs beyond trying harder next time.

But no matter how hard you try, you will fail again. Why? Because the Christian life is not difficult to live – it’s impossible to live! Only one Person has lived the Christian life perfectly and it wasn’t you. But the good news is that He lives in you and He is your victory in all those areas where you’re failing.

For years we Christians have been told there’s a civil war going on inside – the bad you versus the good you, the sinful nature versus the new nature. This is simply not true according to the Bible. You had a sinful nature but it’s gone: “In him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by Christ…” (Col 2:11)

If you still had a sin nature, you wouldn’t be distressed when you sin. But you are. You do the thing you don’t want to do and it makes you miserable. This regret is actually an encouraging sign for it’s one proof of your new Christ-like nature. It’s not your old man come back from the dead that’s making you miserable; it’s sin. Don’t identify with it. It’s not you. “It is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me” (Rm 7:17). Recall that when Paul writes about sin in Romans 5-8, he’s describing sin as a noun, not a verb. Think of sin as an enemy agent “crouching at your door desiring to have you” (Gen 4:7).

Some people will tell you that you’re in a battle with self. But the Bible says my old man has been crucified with Christ and you are a new creation.

Now you're collaborating with the Holy Spirit in a fight against sin. It’s God and you against him.” However, this is a fight that you will lose whenever you engage with your flesh. You’re born of the Spirit but you can still walk after the flesh. What is “the flesh”? It’s a way of living that says, “I can get my needs met outside of Christ.” In a word, it’s
independence . It’s a mindset that says, I can do it, I can fix things, I can make it happen. You are not the only one in this mess,  plenty of Christians are living exactly like this. Their motives are sincere – they’re trying to do the right thing – but they’re stuck in Romans 7. “What I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.” The problem is they're the one trying to do what you can’t do. So many think this is cycle of trying and failing and rededicating your life to God and resolving to do better next time is normal but it’s not. It’s abnormal. It’s carnal Christianity dressed up with the respectable rags of religion.

This is not the kind of life die to us. If you are living like this, renew your mind. Stop struggling-trying and start trusting-resting.