thankuCHRIST said:
What does total obidience to God means to you?
What habits did you give up to become closer the God? Was is hard?
Did it become easier and easier as time past?
What do you do to make sure that you never backslide?
Have you found your peace and serenity yet that was promised to you by God and if you have what would you say to those that are about to give up? On life and on God?
These answers are important for people that were like me that I encounter everyday and I want them to see the glory of God but I battle the devil everyday. My battle is music, secular music. I fight so hard but the devil becomes slicker and I fall sometime but I know I will win at the end or I will pay for it in death. I know over time is will become easier. That is why I give all honor to Christ. I have not gotten my peace yet because I have a long way to go but I never know when my time for grace nor does anyone know. Every day is hard but I will not give up on Jesus nor on me I have no right and I know a life without is empty.
***GIVE ME YOUR IMPUT***
MY DEAR SISTER IN CHRIST,
What a beautiful Spirit you generate with your willingness to grow and change according to our Lord's will for you! MAY YOU BE BLESSED!!!!
You know, i just can't think of the changes God has blessed me with over the last 6 years with "giving up" anything. It was more like evil stuff i wanted to get rid of that our Lord graciously took from me. Being an over-the-hill hippie, the first things to go were, of course, drugs-sex-and rock-n-roll. i can honestly say it was a relief to get rid of all that garbage--although i must admit smashing $3000 worth of CD's was not an easy task!
The hardest thing i have had to give up--and the task is far from completed--is my life-long Pride, Vainglory, Vanity, and Egocentrism--the root cause of all the multitude of sins which have kept me in darkness and miseryfor most of my life. Praise Be To God that i have made a little progress in this area, but i still have a long long way to go!
Anyway, to answer your other questions:
TOTAL OBEDIENCE TO GOD means to me that when i feel His Will direct me towards or away from something, i follow the prompting of the Holy Spirit to the best of my ability, praying that God's Will--not mine--be done in whatever the situation is. The more obedient i am--and i confess my obedience if far from perfect, being probably 51% of the time--the more clearly i can hear His voice and the easier it is for me to obey. (Why not 100%, you ask? You guessed it--because of the continued control my Pride, Vainglory, Vanity, and Egocentrism exerts over my life.) i am getting better at it--slowly but surely. Praise Be To Our God For His Patience!!!!!!!
Regarding BACKSLIDING--the best thing i have found to help avoid backsliding--is Morning and Evening Prayer. MORNING PRAYER consists, among other things, of asking God to take control of my life for the next 24 hours and help me to do His will in all situations and interactions which come up during the day. EVENING PRAYER consists, along with praise for His guidance during the day, of a confession of anything which i have done which was sinful or against God's will. Basically, it is the 10th Step of Alcoholics Anonymous which entails doing a daily Personal Moral Inventory coupled with a prompt admission of all wrongdoing and an asking for forgiveness. Backsliding is a PROCESS not an event, so keeping an eye on myself on a day-to-day basis helps preclude the development of negative thought and behavior patterns which lead to backsliding.
All this does, indeed, get easier and easier as time goes on--especially as the level of motivation increases as the blessings of our Lord become increasingly evident in our lives. It's kind of like going to work everyday and getting a raise! GOD IS SOOO GOOD!
The most difficult time for me--and apparently for many others--was early in the Christian walk when Satan tries everything in his power to knock us off the path that leads to God. When he had me under his thumb--when i was drinking, drugging, and commiting a-sin-a-minute--he never messed with me because he had no reason to because i belonged to him. But as soon as i began to turn from the darkness and crawl towards the light of our Lord, the stuff hit the fan!!!! Instead of everything magically getting better as i expected when i turned my life over to our Lord, things got worse, and worse, and worse. Luckily, i had been previously warned of this phenomenon, so i knew where it came from and what it meant--that the Evil One wanted me back under his thumb. It was hang-onto-your-butt time for a while, but praise be to our God and to my Brothers and Sisters in Christ, i was able to do that and come out the other side relatively intact. As i was warned, so i will warn you--Satan is a jealous piece of trash, and does not let go of his possessions easily--so be ready for a Spiritual Battle throughout your Christian Walk, BUT ESPECIALLY AT THE BEGINNING!!!! Remember that you are, however, not alone in the fight!
i have indeed found the Peace and Serenity which God promises us over and over again in the Scriptures. The passage that Saint Paul wrote, "WHAT NO EYE HAS SEEN AND NO EAR HAS HEARD, AND WHAT HAS NEVER COME INTO A MAN'S HEART, IS WHAT GOD HAS PREPARED FOR THOSE WHO LOVE HIM."(I Cor 2:9) is an understatement. What my life has become under the influence of Jesus is beyond my wildest expectations. If this Post was not so long already i would go into more detail, but suffice it to say that i have never looked back!!
Finally, i would point out to those who are ready to give up on life and on God, that in my humble opinion, they have never REALLY lived life as a Christian at all, or the thought to give it up would never cross their mind, and if they are ready to give up on God--THEN THEY HAVE NEVER TRULY MET HIM!!!!!!!! ALL GLORY TO HIM FOR THE HAPPINESS, PEACE, AND JOY HE BESTOWS ON THOSE YOU SEEK HIS FACE!!!!
My Sister--God is GOOD beyond anything you can imagine, and a life lived with and in Him is BEAUTIFUL beyond anything you can conceive. In implore you: "TASTE AND SEE THAT THE LORD IS GOOD."(I Peter 2:3)
MAY GOD BLESS, KEEP, AND GUIDE YOU!
ephraim
