A True Holy Life
Many of God's people, many well meaning, and being very zealous after Him, try to live holy lives and when they mess up, they feel like they are the only one having this hard of time at "not sinning". A lot of Christians beat them selves up for days, weeks, and even years when they mess up. "Is it supposes to be this hard?" people ask, and many Preachers, though meaning well, tell you that "it's your choice to do good", and "we all mess up", and though that's true, it's emphasizing the wrong thing. Please, if you’re struggling with some sort of sin or just are one of the 100% of Christians who mess up, read this; and allow the Holy Spirit to teach you, because He's the only one who can! We all would like to think that we mess up or that we sin a lot less than the worldly people, but what does that do for us? It should do nothing, because Jesus tells us that one who breaks one of the least of the commandments has broken them all (yes, it is good that we live with a higher standard than the world, don't misunderstand). Just one sin is so filthy, so dark, so impure, so unlike God... and the first step we must take is to realize that sin is absolutely gross, and unlike God. Now, maybe your one of those people who really go on guilt trips, it's not my intentions to make you feel sorry for yourself, you don't need to realize how bad you are, but just how bad your sin is.
Many Preachers tell you that you must work at not sinning... work at being holy. But if this is truly the case, then we are justified by works, not by faith, and of course the Bible is clear that this is not the case. If we can work at, or master the art of not sinning, that just means that our actions are holy, but since we still have a drive to sin, we are not. To truly be a holy person, all the junk in our heart is taken care of, and we have no bad nature that comes out under pressure. Not a change in actions, but a change in the heart... Jesus said that no good tree produces bad fruit... no bad tree produces good fruit. If we are targeted at just changing out actions, we try to change a whole tree, by trying to change the color of it's fruit. We know that this simply wont work, but if we allow God to change us, not us merely changing our actions, then, and only then, we begin to see a true change in our lives; we don't like the things that we once liked, and the very nature of Christ is what comes out when we are pressed - not the old anger and bitterness that we still had but hid when we tried change on our own. Why do you think David cried out "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a 0steadfast spirit within me."? (Psalm 51:10) If you're sinning, there is always something behind that sin, it's not just your sin - that's not the true problem. What is driving you to sin? We don't need an action change, but a change of heart.
By no means am I meaning "sin all you want until God changes you," but rather, if you let God change you, then it won’t be a work, you will simply no longer be bound to sin. That is the base of what I'm trying to get across. As long as we're on earth, temptations will come. The difference is that in being bound, you constantly do what you hate, and never do what you love... while with temptation, you're in control, you have the power to do what you want.
