For the first twenty years of my Christian walk, I thought the greatest enemy to a successful Christian life was the devil. I believed that if I could keep myself from certain sins the devil

would throw my way, then I would be victorious. Therefore, I developed a system of rules and standards that would keep me on the straight and narrow. I figured if I could combine that with faithful church attendance, tithing, and daily Bible reading, then I would be able to overcome the devil.

After years of striving to measure up to a self-produced standard of performance and rule keeping, I realized that I was attempting to develop my own standard of self-righteousness. It was a standard God never intended for any child of His to maintain. God, in His mercy, allowed me to experience a crash and burn experience that I call brokenness.

As a result, I had a major "coming to the end of myself" moment. For the first time in my life, I realized the real battle was a battle for control. My battle was not with the devil, but was with God. I wanted to be the captain of my own spiritual destiny. I wanted to prove my love for God by good performance. I wanted to measure up to what I perceived God wanted me to be or become.

Somewhere along the way, I missed a major tenet in the teaching of God's grace. On the cross, God had provided my righteousness in Christ. I didn't need to measure up to some standard or adopt a set of rules to earn God's favor. I learned that the cross is not only the place where Jesus died and paid my sin debt, but it is also where He died to set me free from myself.

Picture it this way. There are two aspects of the cross. One aspect is Jesus died to save me from my sin condition (Romans 5:8). The other aspect of the cross is that Jesus died to save me from myself (Galatians 2:20). In other words, God never intended for us to go it alone and develop our own system of righteousness. God's intention for us is not "I will do my best and then call on Him if I need His help." But God's intention for us, from the beginning of our Christian walk, is to surrender the control of our life to Christ and allow Him to live His live through us. It is not Jesus and me make a majority. It is Christ in me, living His life through me, and... read more here 

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Larry Bennett (Georgia, USA) is a contributing writer for IOM America - Transformational Biblical Worldview &

Exchange Life Development.

 

Permission obtained from writer to republish The Battle for Control. Originally published on blog, Wednesday Devotional (Presenting Christ as Life) on Feb. 18, 2015 at URL: http://wednesdaydevotional.com/or copy into browser http://wednesdaydevotional.com/2015/02/18/the-battle-for-control/ IOM America's editorial changes to original approved by author.

 

Scripture note:  Changes made to original verses [i.e. bold, indent, underline, parenthetical contents...] are by this article's author for emphasis and/or clarification. 

 

All Scriptures, unless otherwise stated, are taken from the New American Standard Bible,� Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.