Daily strength comes from above, and lateral strength comes from the sources provided from above. (James W. Dake)
I no longer count on my own goodness or my ability to obey Gods law, but I trust Christ to save me. For Gods way of making us right with himself depends on faith I dont mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection! But I keep working toward that day when I will finally be all that Christ Jesus saved me for and wants me to be. (Philippians 3:9 and 12 NLT)
Some days I feel like I just cant do it. I feel like being a Christian is just too much to take on, with everything else going on in my life. And then as I sit down, open my Bible to the place where I left off, and read, God seems to have just the right words to bring encouragement and peace in my life. Actually these feeling I get at times that want me to give up are rooted in self-pity. Here I sit on a gloomy day, one week before Christmas. Ive got a pulled muscle in my leg, which is like having a blown motor to a bicyclist, and with todays scheduled meetings of caring the message of hope to the alcoholic who is still suffering, I just feel drained, physically, emotionally and spiritually. I just dont feel like I can be good. I know that I can stay sober. I put my sobriety way up front in my daily priorities. I know that with out sobriety I loose everything that I have worked for. Its just that on top of staying sober, I dont know if I can be a good Christian. I really dont think about giving up my love and devotion for God, its just that sometimes my self-pity tells me that I am not a good Christian. And then as I sit down out of habit to read my Bible (Praise God For Good Habits), The words of the apostle Paul are like an arrow shot straight from God to the heart of the problem, my goodness. When I think of the idea of human goodness, I realize that there are those in this life whose goodness far exceeds my own. And then I think that in some, my goodness may exceeds theirs. Man, were all in this life together and were all different. This just happens to be one of those days when I feel that my goodness wont amount to much. That old self-centered, self-pity trying to raise its ugly head above my heart, is stirring around in my soul. And then the apostle Paul in Gods Word makes it perfectly clear, that my goodness has nothing to do with my standing with God. Right now I have a satisfied smile on my face knowing that I cant do it by what I do. It seems ironic to have satisfaction in knowing that I can never be good enough to satisfy God. When I come to the point where I know that God does not want my goodness, oh God wants me to be good, but what God wants from me goes deeper than my goodness that I may or may not have. God wants me to believe in God. God wants my faith. God wants my heart. Thats the starting point. If I give my heart to God, then the rest is a process of growing, of successes and failures, of times of goodness and times other than goodness. I am so thankful that I have not arrived spiritually. Otherwise I would have arrived short of how God wants me to be. God is doing for me what I could not do for myself .JRE
No, dear brothers and sisters, I am still not all I should be, but I am focusing all my energies on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead. I strain to reach the end of the race and receive the prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us up to heaven. (Philippians 3:13-14 NLT)
This is another way of saying that we are going to do our best to work toward a lifelong goal that no one ever reaches until eternity. (The Life Recovery Bible, page 1437)
I no longer count on my own goodness or my ability to obey Gods law, but I trust Christ to save me. For Gods way of making us right with himself depends on faith I dont mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection! But I keep working toward that day when I will finally be all that Christ Jesus saved me for and wants me to be. (Philippians 3:9 and 12 NLT)
Some days I feel like I just cant do it. I feel like being a Christian is just too much to take on, with everything else going on in my life. And then as I sit down, open my Bible to the place where I left off, and read, God seems to have just the right words to bring encouragement and peace in my life. Actually these feeling I get at times that want me to give up are rooted in self-pity. Here I sit on a gloomy day, one week before Christmas. Ive got a pulled muscle in my leg, which is like having a blown motor to a bicyclist, and with todays scheduled meetings of caring the message of hope to the alcoholic who is still suffering, I just feel drained, physically, emotionally and spiritually. I just dont feel like I can be good. I know that I can stay sober. I put my sobriety way up front in my daily priorities. I know that with out sobriety I loose everything that I have worked for. Its just that on top of staying sober, I dont know if I can be a good Christian. I really dont think about giving up my love and devotion for God, its just that sometimes my self-pity tells me that I am not a good Christian. And then as I sit down out of habit to read my Bible (Praise God For Good Habits), The words of the apostle Paul are like an arrow shot straight from God to the heart of the problem, my goodness. When I think of the idea of human goodness, I realize that there are those in this life whose goodness far exceeds my own. And then I think that in some, my goodness may exceeds theirs. Man, were all in this life together and were all different. This just happens to be one of those days when I feel that my goodness wont amount to much. That old self-centered, self-pity trying to raise its ugly head above my heart, is stirring around in my soul. And then the apostle Paul in Gods Word makes it perfectly clear, that my goodness has nothing to do with my standing with God. Right now I have a satisfied smile on my face knowing that I cant do it by what I do. It seems ironic to have satisfaction in knowing that I can never be good enough to satisfy God. When I come to the point where I know that God does not want my goodness, oh God wants me to be good, but what God wants from me goes deeper than my goodness that I may or may not have. God wants me to believe in God. God wants my faith. God wants my heart. Thats the starting point. If I give my heart to God, then the rest is a process of growing, of successes and failures, of times of goodness and times other than goodness. I am so thankful that I have not arrived spiritually. Otherwise I would have arrived short of how God wants me to be. God is doing for me what I could not do for myself .JRE
No, dear brothers and sisters, I am still not all I should be, but I am focusing all my energies on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead. I strain to reach the end of the race and receive the prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us up to heaven. (Philippians 3:13-14 NLT)
This is another way of saying that we are going to do our best to work toward a lifelong goal that no one ever reaches until eternity. (The Life Recovery Bible, page 1437)
it's all about HIM!
EOJ
