Gideons300, you come very close to the truth but then turn to a moralistic line that will lead people to self-righteous, frustration and failure. The Christian life is entirely God's work. He is the One who draws us to Christ (John 6:44), and convicts us of sin (John 16:8), and illuminates our understanding to His truth (John 16:13); He is the one who imparts to us faith (Romans 12:3) and repentance (2 Timothy 2:25); He is the One who redeems, justifies, and sanctifies us (1 Corinthian 1:30); and He is the One who moves us on into a deeper, holier walk with Himself (Philippians 1:6; Philippians 2:13; 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24). When a Christian puts the onus for his success spiritually upon himself, he will quickly come to failure. God's way for His children to live in victory doesn't depend upon their resolve, their determination, their strength, but upon God bringing each of them to a place of surrender. It is only in going low before God in acknowledgement of one's profound weakness and waywardness, and submitting one's self in total, moment-by-moment dependence upon God that the Holy Spirit is free to work to transform one's desires, thinking and behaviour and conform one more and more to the Person of Christ. And so we read:
Romans 6:13
Romans 12:1
James 4:7-10
1 Peter 5:6
No man can bring himself to a place of true surrender, of submission, to God. It is only God at work in a person who can cause them to yield, to humble themselves under His mighty hand. And often He does this through long, patient demonstration to His child of their utter inability to be who wants them to be (Hebrews 12:5-11). God uses failure - repeated and sometimes very grave - to convince His children that they cannot live His life by moralistic, human means. Just as God had to make us able to choose salvation, He must also make us able to live in constant surrender to Himself and showing us just how incredibly weak we are is necessary to this end. Our spiritual transformation is a supernatural thing - not humans doing for God, but, from beginning to end, God doing for humans.
I think you are missing a key part of the message God gave me to share.
We cannot do it.... CANNOT. We cannot fully obey. Nor fully keep self under control. We cannot stop sinning, nor be holy. We cannot escape our lack of passion for God, nor can we love God with
all of our hearts.
BUT, for most, it is giving our best efforts to do so, and failing.... again and again... that teaches us the lesson we need so desperately need to learn. What is inpossible with man is possible with God.
Yes, we need to try to walk pleasing to Him! Loving sacrifices is the height of the bar He has set for us, amen? Paul said "You have not
yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin".
Why is this important? Because it is in this process we are brought to our crisis point, where we finally are broken of ALL self-confidence. It is only when we come to Him with NO strength that we are prepared to do the one thing He has asked us to do.... step out and believe our God. His promises were meant to be believed, and they work! But we cannot fully believe in Him as long as we still believe in us, lol.
I am sharing neither grace that allows sin to reside within us, nor am I sharing legalism, which is basically telling saints to "do better, try harder, bear more fruit, stop loving the world, stop being lukewarm. OBEY!"
But until we get it that God does indeed expect obedience, does want us to walk before Him in holiness and righteousness all the days of our lives, we all seem to drift into one of those two avenues. One, a false grace that does not teach us to deny unrighteousness, leads to Laodecia. The other, legalism, leads to a new breed of Pharisees. Neither leads to life, and thus abiding in Him becomes nothing more than a religious phrase.
Lying in between those two, however, is the sliver of light called FREE INDEED, where we, by faith, put off our old nature, reckoning that that person is not us anymore. Oh, it WAS us, in spades.
But that person died when Christ died, amen? Instead, we put on our brand new nature, believing that it is no more us that live, but Christ who lives in us, and through us. Why? Because when Christ rose from the dead, so DID we. Glory!
It is there that we discover our shield of faith actually works, and when satan comes tempting, as he most surely will, we are armed with the truth that we have been delivered from not just the penalty of darkness but the very power of it. Truth is our weapon. Satan has no answer for it.
How can this be? Well, the strength of sin is the law, amen? And the law has authority over us as long as we live, right? Ahhhh, but what if we, our old fallen nature, is truly dead? Has the light bulb flashed on in our heads? LOL. If we are truly dead, that means that the law has no authority over us, and therefore sin has no power or control over us. Whoa.
Now, can we fall here? Indeed yes. This is not sinless perfectionism I share. It is a walk, abiding in Him with His words, His promises to us abiding in us, and as we walk on this amazing highway of holiness (not the highway TO it!) we discover that God actually begins to transform our outer self and fruits begin to grow on us. But until we fully believe that, deep in our core, we ARE new creatures, we end up trying to still 'be good', outside to inside, and it simply does not work.
So yes, even after we have taken our stand of faith and reckoned that the old us is indeed DEAD, we can still slip, because our faith may be still small and wavering. It is here we begin our good fight of faith, growing in that faith, to the point we are rooted and grounded in the truth of who we really are... overcomers, victorious over the world, the flesh and the devil! And when we become fully 'established in the truth'? Watch out satan. Nothing is more attractive than joy-filled, victorious saint who knows it is no longer him keeping and changing himself, but God doing the work.
So if we slip, (IF, not when!), we repent of the sin and immediately confess the truth again of who we are on the INSIDE. Our shield of faith stays up. and to our joy and amazement, our faith grows and His nature inside us continues to grow towards the surface.
I pray this helps with your misunderstanding.
Many blessings,
Gideon
Christ took something and gave something back. What do you walk in.. the old man or new? Once we were slaves to it but no more. As our Brother said.. no more me.. its the sin that is is in me. And there is so much more Paul said and one was meat. Not once was it posted. As another brother said .. of which I agree with.. a red flag is when "WE" "OUR". 
