Who is on Your Heart Throne?

Have you ever discovered that the days you try the hardest to be perfect or keep your thought life pure is the very same day you stumble the most?   I have been experiencing these ups and downs since watching the movie Courageous.  I know that James says, "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds" but I wish that the trials didn't increase at the very moment you begin to work on walking more like Christ.  One thing I have discovered, is that much of the time when I experience stumbling, it is because I am trying to walk rightly on my own instead of allowing Jesus to perform a sanctifying work in me.  


Why is it then that I seem to struggle so much with allowing Jesus to change my heart and life.  Why do I constantly live like I need to rise above my sin and accomplish perfection on my own?  I know the answer to this question, which is my sinful nature is trying to walk as if I am my own God instead of acknowledging my need for God and inability to live rightly without God.  I know these things to be true and yet I still struggle with letting Jesus have complete reign of my heart. 

Have you ever been there?  Have you ever punished yourself for the many sins you commit each day and your inability to be pure for even a minute, let alone an hour?  Have you ever felt unworthy of being a follower of Jesus because of how often you stumble and because it seems to be an incurable condition?  Each one of these actions is due to your sin nature and temptations of the Devil.  Becoming a Christian, does not make you instantly pure and sinless like Christ but allows Jesus' purity and sinlessness become your covering, which allows you to be admitted into heaven through Christ's atonement on the cross.  Let me simplify that for you.  When you become a Christian you become a sinner saved by grace not a person who is now sinless and will never struggle with sin again.  

I find it enlightening the way Paul, in Galatians, talks about this battle in reference to our need for the Holy Spirit.  Paul says, "But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.  For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do."  In order to walk a more sanctified life we have to, "walk by the Spirit."  Only through doing this can we expect to see a change in our behaviors, thoughts, and actions.  Paul puts it this way in an earlier part of Galatians saying, "I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me."     

So each morning we have to remember to rely completely on the Holy Spirit to help us walk in Jesus each day.  Every time we try and put ourself before the Holy Spirit, we will continue to stumble.  So let Jesus have full reign of your heart's throne today.  In your surrender to Jesus, the fruits of the spirit, which are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control, will begin to grow and flourish in you.  Also the sin that plagues you will continue to make you stumble less.  I do not believe you will ever reach a state of perfect sinlessness in this world but the Holy Spirit will continue to bring you into a closer walk with Christ daily till the day you do become perfectly cleansed and sinless upon your arrival into heaven.  


I ask that you also pray for me that I would lay down my life daily so that it is not I living but Christ living in me each day.  I want each of you to know that I am so thankful to be able to share with you each day.  I continue to hope that through my struggles, and the lessons the Lord teaches me through them, you may be blessed, encouraged, and strengthened in your own daily walk with Christ.  

Blessings,

Greg  (www.realchristianwalk.com)


P.S.  I wanted to share with you all another beautiful Indiana fall photo today. I hope it brings you peace and joy.  :)