So, when you're baptized, the Holy Spirit enters you, and, what truly happens to your life? Are all your actions from then on devoted to the Lord, YHWH? It's impossible to devote an action or routine to the devil, right? I want to keep the devil out of my life permanently and I really need reassurance that I can't devote anything to the devil with just a thought. You can't, right?
While we live this mortal life we live in a state of tension between the now and not yet; for we have truly and indeed been seated with Christ in heavenly places (Ephesians 2:6), our citizenship is from heaven (Philippians 3:20), and Christ Himself has promised, "That where I am you will be also." (John 14:3). And yet, we are still here with these mortal bodies of death, and so as St. Paul says in Romans chapter 7, "For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing." (Romans 7:19), so that though we know the Law of God is good and holy, but that we are not, and so we cannot be righteous by the Law but we can only be righteous through faith (Romans 3:20-22), for Christ Himself is our righteousness (1 Corinthians 1:30).
There then exists the tension between the old Adam and the new man in Christ; so that there is that struggle, a war within us between the old and the new; that by the old man still at war we are sinners, and the Law of God condemns and causes us to grieve that we might repent; but the new man which is the new creation of God in Christ is alive by grace, through faith, by the power of the Spirit and this new man is perfect, righteous, holy. Thus we are walking paradoxes, at once and at the same time sinners and saints.
Thus the working of God in our lives indeed is continual, but we have this promise from God spoken by the Apostle St. Paul, "
that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ." (Philippians 16), so that between now and our resurrection on the Last Day, God is at work in us, to conform us to the image of His Son (Romans 8:29), that is His promise to us, that He is faithful to this good work even when we are faithless, for He remains faithful even in our faithlessness (2 Timothy 2:13).
Therefore do not trust in your own abilities, do not look to your own attempts at good works, do not measure your place before God based on what you see in yourself, or what you think or feel at any given moment; but instead look always to Christ who gave His life for you, reconciling you to God, in whom you have righteousness from God, and peace with God, are the heir of God, the child of God, are the property of God in Jesus Christ.
Let us therefore drown ourselves daily in repentance, boldly confessing our sins before God, trusting in Christ in whom we have forgiveness freely from God. Confident that though we shall face the onslaught of many temptations, and many failures, and with the fiery darts of the devil who would seek to deceive us and lead us away from our faith, we have faith from God that ours is every good gift from above, ours in Christ Jesus our Lord who loves us. Therefore setting our gaze forward, to Christ, to run the race set before us--for indeed Christ is the Author and Finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:1-2).
Surrender, repentance, etc is not going to be some sort of once-and-done and now you have no more struggles; it is instead the call of Jesus Christ to be His disciple in this world, where He says, "Take up your cross and follow Me" (Matthew 16:24), that in dying to ourselves we have life. This life is a life of discipleship, a life of the cross, a life consisting of dying. And this is something that will encompass this entire life of ours, from the day of our baptism until the day of our final breath. But, in all this, remember it is Christ who saves you, it is Christ who keeps you, it is Christ who holds you--therefore trust in Him in and through all things.
Jesus has your back, always.
When you fall. Trust in Jesus.
When you can't get up. Trust in Jesus.
When all seems lost and hopeless. Trust in Jesus.
When things seem well. Trust in Jesus.
When you don't know what you are doing. Trust in Jesus.
In everything. Trust in Jesus.
-CryptoLutheran