Tired of trying to fulfill God's will?

‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty. - Zechariah 4:6

Now this topic is quite an important one. Scripture says we cannot be redeemed by our own deeds but only through what Jesus did at the cross – he died for us, for our sins, because we by ourselves cannot redeem us by doing good deeds to weigh up for our bad ones.

When we look at the commandments God has given us, everything that is written in the Torah, we soon realize – even if we tried really really hard, we won't be able to fulfill every single thing. We will always succumb to the things we shall not do, be it out of rebellion, out of curiosity, out of lust or not knowing better. So, we sin. Even as Christians.

But shouldn't we, as Christians especially, try to live by God's word? Yes. And so we try our hardest to fulfill what Jesus told us to, asking and praying for strength and God's help where we realize we can't do it ourselves.

At least I did.

Now the bible says “Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” (2. Corinthians 3:17)

Honestly, I don't really feel free when trying my hardest to fulfill God's demands. So what do I do wrong? Because since I'm a born again Christian, the Holy Spirit lives inside me and hence I should be free, right?

If you're feeling the same and, like me, grow tired of waking up every morning, praying that God would give you strength to survive this day and act according to his will – there's something I need to share with you.

Indeed, God wants us to live in freedom. That's part of why Jesus died for us.

I listened to a teaching on Romans 6-8 today and God, am I glad I decided to listen to this one instead of continuing the one I had started with a while ago. That tiny gentle feeling you sometimes get – it proved right again. One of the ways the Holy Spirit can lead me and you.

Here is my revelation for today:

Romans 7:1-6

Or do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives?

For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage. Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress.

Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.

Now read it again and bear in mind that “the law” is God's commandments.

Before you jump to conclusions like “so I don't have to follow God's commandments anymore!” - nope. That's not the point of it. Let me explain.

See Verse 4 – You have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to Jesus, in order to bear fruit for God.

As Christians, when we made our decision to follow Jesus, to lay our life down and surrender to him, we have died. Because we gave our life to Christ and so take part in his death and resurrection. We have died. The law doesn't apply to the dead.

But what does apply is that we belong to Jesus and so we cannot simply ignore what our owner wants either.

So what? It's following the law nevertheless? No, not in the same way.

Let's take the image of a king and a peasant child. There are laws everyone has to abide by. Anyone who doesn't follow them will be punished. The problem is that those laws are hard to keep and almost everyone fails in constantly obeying them.

Now the king rides through the country and sees a peasant child. He has mercy and invites the child to become part of his royal family. The child happily follows.

For a while they live in joy and peace until the child remembers all those laws it has to keep. Instead of a loving and merciful father, the child starts seeing the king as just and strict man whose demands it needs to meet. The father-child relationship from before starts to turn into a Lord-servant one. The freedom of a beloved child is gone.

But not because the king had changed – the king is still the same, having mercy on his child. But the child set the focus on the wrong thing. It doesn't look to its father anymore but only at his commandments.

It's the same with us and God. God didn't change. He wants us to be free. Of course his will is still the same and his laws are valid BUT as Christians we do not have to fulfill them by our own strength. It is God in us. Jesus in us is the power who justifies us.

Instead of waking up every morning, groaning under the weight of another day to live by the law, we should be looking at God's mercy and thank him. We should shift our focus away from what (we think) we have to do to what God has done and does and will do for us. He is the one who fulfills the law. We are dead to the law. We belong to Jesus. We can trust HIM that HE provides for us, that HE loves through us, that HE speaks through us. It isn't us doing all the good stuff. Instead, when we try to do good deeds out of our own strength will be often end up as Romans 7:15 says - “I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.“

So relax. Lean back. Look at what God did, does and will do for you. Trust him. Remember that you're his beloved child. That he is your father. He cares for you, he provides for you. He knows your struggle and trouble and wants to help you.

Rely on his strength and power, not on your own. Let him live through you, rejoice in the freedom that belonging to Jesus brings:

You are dead to the sin. And you are dead to the law. Jesus lives. And through him, everything is done.

Keep reminding yourself – it isn't you who is supposed to do all this. It is God who will do it.

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. - Galatians 2:20