After my last thread I found this is definitely my major issue. .. As I stated in the last thread. I want what I want when I want it lol ... I know that's not good.
But I'm being honest...this is where I am now. I know need to change but I just feel like if I do all of what God wants .... I'll just be miserable .... Because I feel I can't have anything since I have to say no to myself all the time.
Just makes doing God's will a bit unappealing.
How do I change this?
You don't. God does.
Can a man crucify himself? Even if he was able to endure the agony of nailing his feet and then one of his hands to a cross, how would he pound in the final nail? It's impossible to do alone! This is true spiritually, as well. No man can crucify himself.
So, God did the crucifying for us. Read
Romans 6. Or
Galatians 2:20, or
Galatians 5:24, or
Colossians 3:3. If you are a truly born-again person, you have been crucified with Christ and your "old man/woman," the source of all your sin, has been rendered powerless to cause you to sin. Do you believe it? It's a fact of your identity in Christ, your spiritual position in him. But what is true of your spiritual position has to be made part of your daily condition, the way you live every day. This is done first by knowing who you are in Christ and then, by faith, living in accord with who you are in him. Paul calls this "reckoning." (
Romans 6:11)
Dying to sin, dying to Self, in your daily condition is something one does only when one truly loves God. Loving God, though, requires that we stop loving ourselves. There is no room, you see, on the throne of your heart for yourself
and God. You have to go. That's the "deal" when you become a Christian, though few are told this these days when the Gospel is preached to them. Being saved involves an exchange: Your lousy, sinful, Self-centered life is given up for a new, holy life in Christ.
Matthew 16:24-26
24 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
25 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.
26 For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
There is only one thing powerful enough to motivate us into the crucified life of a disciple of Jesus: love. This is why God's First and Great Commandment to us isn't to pray, or read the Bible, or go to church, but to
love Him with everything we've got. (
Matthew 22:36-38)
Right now, you love yourself more than you love God. This will only change as God works in your heart and mind and transforms your thinking and desires. He does so, though, only as you ask Him to - and keep asking 'til He does.
God isn't out to ruin your fun. He is, after all, the Creator of humor, chocolate, sunsets and sex. His way of living is
the very best way to live. He should know, right? He's God. His way protects you and puts you in the stream of His blessing. Most of all, though, living God's way allows you to fellowship with Him. If you'll do things God's way, you will get to enjoy Him every day! Nothing is better than that (though you may not yet believe it)!
Revelation 3:20
20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.
John 10:9-10
9 I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.
10 The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.
