Maybe you are familiar with the words of the song, “Come Thou Fount”:
- “Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it; prone to leave the God I love…”
- Do you feel that?
- Do you feel that prone-ness to wander from God?
- “Here’s my heart, Lord, take and seal it; seal it for Thy courts above.”
- Do you feel that constant battle in your mind and your heart between flesh and spirit? (Romans 7:14-25)
I do.
Do you want so badly to be wholly devoted – to be completely surrendered to Jesus? And yet you constantly feel like you are
- fighting for patience,
- battling for humility,
- striving for purity,
- aching for joy…
I do.
We wage this constant war with temptation and sin and our fleshly desires, and one day we’re up and the next day we’re down, and we vacillate between victory and defeat, and if you’re anything like me, you think,
- “What’s the matter with me?”
- “Why can’t I beat this?”
- “Where is the victory!?”
As lovers of God and followers of Jesus, we are on a journey. And this journey is more like a marathon – a long-distance race – than it is a quick sprint to the finish line. (Hebrews 12:1-2)
It is the journey of redemption – of complete salvation – whereby all that we are is being completely redeemed and saved, through and through. (1 Thessalonians 5:23-24.)
This journey is not set off sometime in the distant future. It is happening right now – in our present lives. It is not something we have to wait for. We don’t have to wait for death and heaven to join with God in the journey of our redemption and complete salvation. He invites us into that process with Him – right now!
Here’s what God’s Word has to say about it:
- We are more than conquerors through Christ who loves us (Romans 8:37)!
- If you have trusted Jesus as your Savior, you have received the spirit of adoption into God’s family, and you are a joint-heir – one who shares the same inheritance with Christ (Romans 8:15-17)!
- And that same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead is alive in you, giving life & meaning & purpose & victory to your earthly, mortal existence (Romans 8:11).
- He is transforming you into Christ’s likeness, from glory to ever-increasing glory (2 Corinthians 3:18),
- as you partner with Him, and cooperate with His gracious enabling of you to will and to do according to His good purpose (1 Corinthians 3:9; Philippians 2:13).
These are God’s Words. And they are for us.
I am going to quote a ton of Scripture throughout this series, but I am not going to stop and have you read each and every passage. Instead, many Scriptures will be daisy-chained together, back-to-back-to-back. Often, I will only briefly mention the Scriptural reference. I would encourage you to search out these things for yourself in God’s Word.
Please don’t just take my word for it. I’m just a man, like you. Now, I’ve studied, I’ve prepared, and I am going to give you my very best in these posts. But in the end, please don’t rely on my words. Please find your strength and resolve in the Word of God, which will never pass away.
In the next post, we will look at the Biblical answer to this question: What did Christ accomplish for us on the cross?
Like Trees Planted 